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Chinese export porcelain decorated in an elaborate "Rose Mandarin" style. The decoration is possibly based on the Chinese classical story "Dream of the Red Mansion" which in fact could be the case with the "Rose Mandarin" family as a whole.
The "Dream of the Red Mansion" is one of the best-known pieces of Chinese fiction and was first published in 1792. A new edition published in c. 1880 used new metal type imprints for the illustrations - a type of printed illustrations that could actually be the source of inspiration to this decoration, with its somewhat unusually clear outlines.
The charger is probably made or decorated in south of China - Canton, Hong Kong or Macao - during the early part of the 20th century. The mark says "Zhong Guo Zhi Zuo" or, "China Made" which would probably date this carger to the period of the Republic of China (1911-49), a more exact guess would be around the 1930s.
Thank you for your interest.
Best regards,
Jan-Erik Nilsson
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