Chinese Guangxu Mark and Period Cong Vase

Guangxu Period Cong Vase

Fine Chinese Porcelains of the Late 19th C.

By the end of the 19th C. nearing the end of Imperial rule in China the quality of Chinese porcelain production suffered mightily. The under glaze blue, famlle rose enamels, wucai, docai and famille verte decorated vases, bowls, cups, plates and ritual wares had all fallen in quality with rare exceptions. Their had also been a chronic shortage in fine quality raw materials for decades as well as money to support production of items for the Imperial house.

Qing Monochrome Porcelain Until April 8, 2013

The one shining area of Chinese porcelain production during this period of decline was in the production of monochromes. In particular of fine quality Tea Dust, Celadons and Clair de lune glazed Mark and Period examples were still being produced albeit in small quantity's.

Guangxu Mark on Base

As a dealer it is still possible to come across these examples in local estates, particularly here in New England as they were brought from China prior to World War I before the kilns making these examples collapsed ending production.

A few weeks ago we were fortunate get a call about one of these in the form of a fine late 19th C vase.  It was a Cong shaped vase coated with a fine thick evenly applied  soft bluish slightly green glaze. The base was neatly decorated with the six character mark of the Guangxu Emperor (1875 - 1908) in under glaze blue of superb quality.

After securing from the estate we have opted to place it on Ebay. It  will be there for another 9 days for our regular buyers to consider and bid on.  To see it and other things of good quality right now click the link below in the box  titled "Our Favorite Sellers, Search No. 2". To see how our Cong is doing scroll down a bit...its there, you might need to click to the next page...

FIND OUR FAVORITE SELLERS OF ASIAN ART ON eBay

Our Favorite Sellers, Search No. 2

• Congs and Cong shaped objects have been produced within Chinese Culture For for almost 5,000 years. Initially they were made from jades during the  Liangzhu culture (3400-2250 BC). The
  
  early examples were basically a tube with a circualr interior and a squared outer perimeter. While they are thought to be resulting from some ritual origin but what their initial use was has never been figured out...Today the form still exists though much evolved. 

Liangzhu Culture Jade Cong