I have attached pictures of a pair of lidded jars that I own, they appear not being made by the same person which I determined by the color intensity of the blue as well as the difference in the signature's.

They were originally sold to me as a pair of blue and white lidded jars bearing the mark of Kang Hsi 1662-1722 and they stand 34cm tall, the big question is, what are they?

No, but maybe Guangxu (1875-1908) mark and period

Interestingly enough your vases have the mark of "Guangxu nian zhi" which is referring to the Qing dynasty, Guangxu (1875-1908) period. I would say that the vases are nice but more of "Trade quality" rather then "Imperial". Asa a sign we can notice that the two first characters "Da Qing" (Great Qing dynasty) in the mark, has been omitted.

Their shape and the domed lids with their unusual finals would to me indicate a slightly later date than that even though many would accept them as being exactly of the period of the mark, or even earlier than that, had they not had the mark of Guangxu :-)

It is not possibly for me to tell for sure but there is a distinct possibility that these vases are of the period of the mark. This is in that case called mark and period, or in short M+P in the auction catalogs. This actually helps a great deal with the price and it might be that it does not matter much that they are not Kangxi.

Jan-Erik Nilsson

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