Tableware - Quong Tart

This set of tableware - like the Chinese/English phrase book - was given to Alf. Hughes by his Employer Quong Tart.

(Donated to the Ashfield Historical Society by Society Peter Wood of Concord)

The various items are Chinese export porcelain, famille rose enamels with salmon ground and gilt decoration, bearing a six-character Tongzhi seal mark (大清同治年製, "Made during the Tongzhi reign of the Great Qing"). Probably not produced during the Tongzhi (1862–1874) period itself but in the Guangxu (1875–1908) period. The cup bears the later initials "QT", traditionally associated with Quong Tart (1850–1903).