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Chinese vase that should be old

First of all, your Web-Site is great! Specially for me as a novice in Chinese antiques there are many useful information and links.

On my last trip to China I found a pretty small (15cm height) vase which should be old.

I would like get more information about it. Do you know how old it is, where did it come from and how much it should cost.

Thank you very much in advice.

Unfortunately a fake

Thank you for your kind words about my web site. It is a true pleasure to work with it and through that get in contact with collectors from all over the world. The one drawback might be that it is next to impossibly to find time to help all who write to me.

Regarding your vase I have spent quite some time looking at your pictures - since this is really hard to tell from a picture alone - but I am sorry to say that it does look like your vase might be a recent replica. The decoration just doesn't seem to make sense to me.

This is hard to tell from a picture and might be just as hard in real life. One thing to look out for are crude bases. It is worth remembering that the porcelain potter back in the Ming times every day strived towards as good a piece as possibly, which left us with pretty smooth but hand finished bases, and on porcelain very rarely as rough as this.

For real Ming bases, and a general idea of the price level of real things, I might suggest you to take a look at my for sale section.

Jan-Erik Nilsson