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I found this small dish with base amongst many other things in a family box, and after a bit of research found one similar. "Antique Chinese porcelain famille rose dish Item # 12004449" on the webpage trocadero.com; mark period dealer. I was interested in that vibrant robin's egg blue on the base. The mark on mine looks fake or could be a combination mark with the artist's mark? I am not an expert, I just loved those monkeys and how they were rendered. I also found information indicating that these were faked by Dutch companies and passed off as chinese antiques. Any info you can offer would be great, thank you in advance for your reply. I am not looking to sell, just need to know how careful I should be with this little piece.

When it comes to base-marks on Tongzhi-period popular kiln wares, I've long sensed that the term "normal" somehow went missing from the calligrapher's lexicon. In your pedestal dish, the cavetto painting of monkeys amidst rocks and pines seems to be quite good, virtually a textbook example of Chinese perspective. Likewise, the sidewalls look to be painted in the mainstream Chinese manner.

For the most part, the blue ground and the form and characters in the mark appear to me to be "in the ballpark" with precedent. However, the "da"/大/great" character that leads off at the top right stands out like a sore thumb

I believe what may have happened is a case of calligrapher fatigue or daydreaming, wherein he began writing an incorrect character and tried to cover the mistake. I've seen the result of such a lapse before in a mark of "Made during the "Qianxu" Reign of the Great Qing Dynasty" (see image). So in this vein, I'd recommend you consider this to be a right good example of a mark & period piece, wart and all.

Best regards,

Bill H.

Thank you for the information about the mark. It does give some detail with which I was not familiar! So, I'll put this somewhere low (coffee table) and let people play with it out of interest. A nice conversation starter.

Not a fake. Late19-early 20th. Not worth a great deal since the enameling is rudimentary.

thank you. What period? or what should I call it?

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