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CHINESE TEA CADDY, HOW OLD COULD IT BE ?

by Andrew

Hi Pete,
I have this porcelain tea caddy,about 16 cm.s high, with a continuous handpainted scene all around.

Could the lid have Chinese symbols or characters on them? & if so ,are they helpful in determining a production date or region?

Really don't know much else to tell you more, except that I was attracted to the beautiful sapphire blue colour of the piece.
Could be a modern tea caddy made for export to the West perhaps?
If so age would be very hard to tell & probably not relevant.
I'm guessing here.
What do you think?

appreciatively yours, Andrew.

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Mar 30, 2011
 tea caddy
by: Andrew

HI Pete,
the cobalt is actually hand painted under the glaze.
Pics were taken late afternoon indoors & not very good likeness of the hue; colour really is a lighter sapphire blue in natural outdoor lighting.
Quite attractive & very vibrant I think.
Anyhow thanks for the indicators you pointed out & that the symbols actually are Chinese connotations of sorts & not just artistic designs as I originally thought.
cheers, Andrew.
Mar 29, 2011
 tea caddy
by: peter

Hi Andrew,
You are probably right that it is recent.
The left character on the lid seems to depict the character for 'longevity'. The right one is either not correctly drawn or means something else.
The pictures are a bit small, but I will put a few points to you that I am observing here.

- The bottom looks fairly new.
- The neck is unusual. Even with rectangular, square and other shapes of tea caddies it is usually round.
- The top rim decoration looks irregular. An enlargment shows that it could be painted improperly. I think it should be a stylized cloud design.
- The generally dark blue shows that it is either late 19th century or 20th century (rather later). Actually, the blue is similar as that of the early transfer printed wares. But, I cannot see whether or not it is printed. If you use a magnifier to inspect it for brush strokes, you should be able to decide.

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