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Qianlong stamp anomaly conclusions?

by Paul
(UK)

Hi all!
I've just inherited a chinese pot, an orange glazed amphora with dragon shaped handles and a pale turquoise inner. It also has the weird error on the cartouche on the bottom. The 'qianlong' bit appears to be a '2' rather than a '5', which apparently is a different arcane character which means the same thing(!). Otherwise it seems textbook. It appears to be painted in red, though is very angular and precise. There is no bounding box, it sits within a square of missing turquoise glaze. There seem to be a number of sightings though they are rare it would seem, though I've seen numerous other deviations from the official 'stamp'.
Could it be a fake or modern copy? - it is so beautiful and something about it does seem so 'right', amateur though I am.
Any advice gratefully received.

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Qianlong mark
by: Viscount

Hi Paul,
The Qian character can be written with both 5 and 2. Some rare Qianlong pieces in museum and major auction houses also have same Qian character as yours. However, many later pieces also have Qian character written in the same way. Additional photos about the shape and decoration may help.
Viscount
Qianlong mark
by: peter

Better upload pictures of the whole item. They should be taken in natural lighting, perhaps near a window. The colors are important for evaluating an item.
You cannot judge authenticity based on a mark, due to wide spread mark copying.

Some basic ideas:
1. The large majority of Qianlong marks were made in underglaze blue. Red ones are an exception.
2. The '5' strokes were mandatory for imperial porcelain only. That does not mean marks written that way are necessarily imperial, though.
3. Private kilns were less restricted and there are some variations in their marks.

BTW, a green interior or bottom seems to have been more popular in the 19th century than during the Qianlong reign.

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