A 1908 Great White Fleet crossed flags Chinese cloisonne bottle currently on offer at eBay sent me on a search through the picture files I’ve accumulated to compare the various different styles used to decorate these pieces.
Zhou Chunbing, in his 2022 book 珐琅局 : 中国近代景泰蓝名作坊研究与收藏 (Enamel Bureau: Research and Collection of Famous Cloisonné Workshops in Modern China), describes how the Lao Tianli factory, established 1901, in its 1912 advertising promoted its production of these pieces. [full quote at end of slides]
The style of the dragons seems consistent with Lao Tianli iconography.https://www.beadiste.com/2013/10/puzzling-evidence-lao-tian-lis-dragon.html
Extensive information and memorabilia of the fleet’s visit to Amoy, China can be found at this link:
https://greatwhitefleet.us/home/world_cruise/amoy_china/
The 1900 Boxer Rebellion left Chinese cloisonne workshops in economic peril thanks to destruction and looting on the part of all parties in the conflict. Decheng, a factory that catered to foreigners, was evidently devastated, its owner deceased. It was continued under the name of its auxiliary factory, Dexingcheng. But in the meantime, it seems likely that many skilled cloisonne artists were seeking re-employment; therefore, a large order from the Imperial government that had to be executed quickly possibly sent many of them to work for Laotianli. Hence the interest in considering how the various artists approached the composition of the designs.
The comparisons give rise to a secondary question about whether these 1908 pieces were replicated in later years, perhaps with different artists contracted under the Laotianli workshop network, or even later still?
[Click on slides for larger image, then open image in new tab for even larger.]
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