Please Help Me Identify This Beautiful Piece.

[dmassman27]

If anyone has any information on this piece it will be greatly appreciated. Thank's again in advance.

 

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[Red-Coat]

Very nice. It’s a bronze Chinese vase urn of the type sometimes known as a “double dragon”.

Allowing for some stylistic variations in calligraphy the reign marks, reading from right to left, appear to be for the Ching Dynasty, Ch’ien Lung (Qianlong Emperor) 1735-1796. Some sources indicate the marks were in use from 1736-1795.

The question is, are the marks authentic? On these kinds of pieces they almost always aren’t. Bronzes like this were highly copied in the very late 1800s to early 1900s for export to the west, complete with a copy of the original mark. They weren’t intended to deceive. Faithfully copying the piece together with the reign markings was seen as ‘respectful’ to the artistry of the original.

Copies can still have a reasonable value, but nothing like that of an original. I would get someone experienced to look at it to be sure, but I strongly suspect it’s a copy.

There’s a similar example on eBay at the moment (pictured below), which has no reign marks and so is definitely a later copy (probably closer to mid-1900s). The seller wants $230 for it, which in my opinion is unrealistic for what it is. It’s obviously a more modern replica of inferior workmanship and also doesn’t have the nicely aged patina that yours has.

 

[Yang Hao]

Here is the breakdown of the characters which reads from right to left on the vase. 大清乾隆年製（大清乾隆年制）Dà Qīng Qiánlóng nián zhì 大清(Great Qing dynasty) 乾隆 (Qianlong Emperor) 年 (year) 製 (manufactured)

 

[Red-Coat]

I thin we're saying the same thing, apart from the usual issue of how the Chinese characters should be transliterated to English, with have several possible interpretations.

However, I would stress again that marks like this are only very rarely an authentic indication of when the piece was made.

Incidentally, reign marks on Chinese pieces are more usually arranged in columns, read right-to-left from top-to-bottom. Below I have re-arranged them in the more usual fashion, alongside what I think is the same mark from a porcelain piece... Ching Dynasty, Ch’ien Lung (Qianlong Emperor) which would be 1735-1796. These are usually a lot easier to read as calligraphy than the stylised relief forms of the characters found on bronze and jade pieces. Do I have this right? Same mark?