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The Orange stem cup in the upper left corner of this website

I have this almost exact stem cup that is pictured in the upper left corner of this website. The one I have has character 'vignettes' on either side as your does in sort of pastel colors and appear to have some age. It has two metal twisted handles. It has the bats in gold and other symbols all around the orange portion as well as the swastika symbol and some circled chinese character marks. It has four chinese character marks on the base, one on each side all in gold. My bowl or 'stem cup' is unmarked.
Any information you could give me on this bowl would be greatly appreciated. For example what period was it? How old?? etc...
It is practically identical to the one you have pictured
Thanks very much

Comments for The Orange stem cup in the upper left corner of this website

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Nov 24, 2010
 Similar color planter and a vase with similar people's face
by: Frank

Hi there,
Very interesting to read this posting. I happen to have two items bearing some similarity with what was discussed in this posting. One item is a Fensai vase. The people's faces on the vase are very similar to than on the posted item. I will post my items as a new topic. My other collection is a pair of planter, the red color is very silimar to the left picture on top of this page, with scence of landsacpe around. I will post them in a separate topic.
I guess both of my item maybe from Yongzheng period. I found the rose-like red color on the horse quite unique. Also the landscape on the planter are very simplfied, all these seems go well with the Yongzheng period.
Welcome comments.
Nov 06, 2010
 red stem bowl
by: peter

Hello,
Yes, looks very similar, except that ours has flowers and birds in the medaillons (windows). I assume that yours has its lid missing also?

I am not sure what it is, but the decoration on your bowl could indicate what it is.
First, the character on the stem means Goat/Sheep (same character in Chinese), but I do not know why it is there. However, the character in the circle on the bowl means "pair". The bats around it symbolize "happiness", "good fortune". The red colour (base color here) generally speaking also has the meaning of happiness, fortune in Chinese culture.

Based on this there is a good chance that this stem bowl of yours is a wedding item, and once possibly held wedding candy or something similar.
As to its age, it will be late Qing dynasty. The decoration on mine looks more like late Guangxu reign or thereabouts. Yours is either the same or could even be a bit earlier (judging from the style of the person's faces) maybe early Guangxu.

I would appreciate if you could let me know in case you come across anything similar, in the future.

Peter

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