Famille Noire Jar

I have taken the liberty of attaching photos of a mirror image pair of large Famille Noire jardinieres, they are far beyond my experience.

This massive (21 1/2") pair of jardiniere's have the slightly degraded black glaze that I have seen on earlier Kangxi, I am assuming them to be 19th century, but don't really know. Your insight would be most appreciated.

Ps: I am considering buying them, but not counting on them being 18th Century.

Let me put it this way

Thank you for your request for some assistance.

I take it you are more familiar with ordinary Famille rose and later enamels, then Famille noire. I guess everybody are.

I don't ask you to take my word for anything, I would actually prefer you don't, but let me put it this way;

If you focus on the two birds, and think away the black surrounding glaze - and place those two birds on an ordinary enameled plate.

How would you date that plate - which century and which place of decoration?

I believe that you will find that the enamels are watery and that a pink rose enamel most likely have been used for the birds and flowers, something that does not belong at all in the famille verte palette which was developed during Kangxi, while the rose enamels belongs to an entirely different decoration called famille rose, popular only after the Kangxi period.

I believe that you will also find on close inspection that the outlines of the decorations, like flowers and birds are actually print supported, most likely stamped.

Finally the mark, which indeed says Kangxi Nian Zhi (Kangxi period make) is actually stamped.

All in all this leads me to suggest that this jar is a decorative item made quite recently as Chinese porcelain goes or about fifty years ago, around the end of the cultural revolution, maybe in the 1970s, in Macao or Hong Kong. If you visit my marks section of this site and look under "Macao", you might just find something similar.

Thank you for your interest.

Best regards,
Jan-Erik Nilsson