A Beautiful, Large & Most Fabulous Original Antique Ching Dynasty 'Rose Medallion' Canton Export Porcelain Lamp

An absolutely stunning and beautiful quality original Chinese export antique lamp, Qing Dynasty {Ching} circa 1830, with the body of a fine large size antique Cantonese porcelain vase, in rose medallion pattern with its lacquered highly decorative pierced brass oil lamp mountings, created and assembled in Paris in the 1830's. Later converted to electricity.

A large piece that could be categorised as a centre piece, most surviving antique Canton export lamps are the smaller size side lamps, but this is a statement piece of superb presence. The decoration centres around six dominant panels. On one side there are two panels with scenes of high status mandarins and courtiers above another over a panel decorated with birds and butterflies. The other side a central panel decorated with birds between two panels of people. Antique Chinese export porcelain is now become incredibly desirable and highly valuable due to the ever rising and powerful, so called Tiger Economy, of China. Rare antique Chinese porcelain is now attracting values of 10 to 100 times the prices achieved for them just 30 years ago or so. 'Canton' porcelains are fine Chinese ceramic wares made for export in the 18th to the 20th centuries, this is a piece from the earlier part of that period in the Ching Qing dynasty.

The wares were made, glazed and fired at Jingdezhen but decorated with enamels at Canton (Guangzhou) in southern China prior to export by sea through that port. Canton was a large, densely populated Chinese city. Most of the buildings in this ca. 1800 view in our gallery are two- or three-story buildings used both as residences and shops. The pagoda and five-story watchtower rise above the city, surrounded by the mountains where country estates and guard houses were located. Prominently featured in the foreground, with foreign flags, the area to which foreigners were confined was a tiny district of several acres on the banks of the river, where thousands of boats collected for trade. Many cities along China's southern coast had created foreign quarters for much earlier generations of Indian and Middle Eastern traders. The Westerners were just the latest arrivals. During the passage from Macau up the Pearl River foreigners passed through densely populated agricultural lands and market towns, but they never saw a major city until they reached Guangzhou. We call the trading system that lasted from 1700 to 1842 on China's south coast the Canton system because of this city's dominance. Guangzhou (which Europeans called Canton), an ancient city and one of the largest in South China, had flourished as an administrative and trading centre for over 1000 years before the Westerners arrived. Arab and Persian traders had lived in its foreign quarters under the Tang dynasty since the 8th century. Like most traditional Chinese cities, Canton had a large wall surrounding the central districts, major avenues within the wall, extensive market districts outside the wall, and constant contact by riverboats with the surrounding countryside and distant ports. 25 inches high not including light fitting 33 inches high with shade. The shade is around 50 years old, made of silk, but its condition is now most poor and shown for display purposes only, for use today a new example should be considered

Code: 22231