ming dynasty find?

by yeshig October 18th 2013, 8:53 pm

Hello I am back from a real interesting estate. I recently purchased from the estate of Helen Straughn Connover these ginger jars. Helen graduated togetehr with MME Chiang Kai-Shek at Wellesley Univ. and was her close friend, this can be verified According to her nephew who was selling the estate these were given to her as a wedding gift by Madame Chiang Kai-Shek. The jars are a hard paste salt glazed variety and its dimensions are roughly 8 x 8 including the lids. These are old according to my knowledge of pottery, and the nephew dated them to the 1770's as per a similar set which is currently at the Barracks Museum in Trenton NJ. all information would be appreciated.
kindly; Yeshi. https://i.servimg.com/u/f57/18/57/17/22/peris_10.jpg https://i.servimg.com/u/f57/18/57/17/22/peris_11.jpg https://i.servimg.com/u/f57/18/57/17/22/peris_12.jpg https://i.servimg.com/u/f57/18/57/17/22/peris_13.jpg https://i.servimg.com/u/f57/18/57/17/22/peris_14.jpg https://i.servimg.com/u/f57/18/57/17/22/peris_15.jpg

by **carlos32golf** October 18th 2013, 9:02 pm

Chinese export ware , probably 18th century.

would be nice to find a piece of ming that was made for the Chinese market.

export ware is quite common but this pair seem nice , not easy to find a pair with lids

by **NaomiM** October 18th 2013, 9:11 pm

They could well be 1770 vintage or even earlier. But you would really need to ask an expert in oriental ceramics at one of the large auction houses to verify that because dating them largely depends on subtle differences in colour of the porcelain and the cobalt blue, and photographs don't really give a good representation of them.
It's nice they still have their lids, however, before you get too excited its worth bearing in mind that ginger jars are very common, even Ming Dynasty ones, so the value is in the marks showing they were commissioned for the Emperor's household. These however are unmarked, showing they were provincial ware.