乾隆年製陶器 Qinglong porcelain (tea cups)
Saturday 31 October – Another visits to Sham Sui Po. Another ‘Antique’ porcelain purchased!
pair of teacups
We bought a pair of hand-painted tea? sake? cups with gold gildng inside (matt, not glossy & gaudy). Beautiful detailed painting of 8 Chinese mythical characters (same for both). Very good condition, with barely visible hairline cracks near the bottom rim, which made me think they’re at least some kind of antique (very hard to replicate hairline cracks!). We paid 2/3rd original asking price – a little less than what we thought we’d pay, so pretty happy 
This is the second time we bought from this lady – she remembers us & shows us her better pieces from under her stall (her stall has souvenior stuff like jade, ornaments & cheaper ceramics). She game me her card, & it would be good if I can call her to ask if she’s got anything new (as she knows now what we like), but as my Cantonese cannot match hers, we’ll just have to keep visiting her in SSP 
She says (via George) that her husband gets stocks regularly from China.
The stamp mark at the back says ‘乾隆年製’ which means it’s made in the 乾隆 (Qinglong) era. Qinglong Emperor is a 6th Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, the longest reigning Emperor from 1735-1795. From my readings, it was one of the most prosperous era in Qing, and the emperor encouraged lots of ceramic artists to produce high quality work, both for his appreciation and export (More complex history on Wiki). During his reign, he has more than doubled his surplus of silver teals, which shows there was a lot of trade of goods, including ceramics, with the West (as Silver was the only official currency – which would cause problem later, as in Opium War…) Many such artwork has left China amidst the confusion of the Opium War in mid 18th century, so, quite possibly, this may be a real ‘Qinglong’ piece! There is a label on the box 法浪??? but as I can’t find ??? characters in Japanese dictionary, I can’t search for them 
pair of teacups (different view)
National Palace Museum in Taiwan has a great collection of Qinglong ceramics (website). We’d love to visit there one day. Link on the process of producing porcelain with flower brocade pattern is worth a look (link in Chinese/Japanese, English is text only).
Porcelain from similar era (legitimate museum pieces, from Tokyo National Museum)
Tags: China, Culture, flea market, history, porcelain, shopping