Three vases with Chinese marks have little value

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Dear Helaine and Joe:Enclosed please find pictures of three vases my husband and I purchased at a private sale 15 to 16 years ago. The only information we received was that during the invasion of China by Japan in the 1930s, nuns in a monastery crated and brought numerous items to the USA. and these were among them. We thought they were very beautiful. Could you possibly have any more information.Thank you,D. S. F., Tavares, Fla.Dear D. S. F.First of all, thank you for the great in-focus photographs on glossy photograph paper. We have to throw away hundreds of letters each month that we would like to answer because they have no photo, or the images are digital photos on plain bond paper, or the photos are of poor quality and out of focus or too small to reproduce.Second, there should be a rule somewhere written in stone that reads, "Beware of so-called 'antiques' that come with interesting stories!" Some of these tales are true, to be sure, but most are offered just to make items seem better than they actually are and mislead buyers who cannot get beyond the colorful folderol.These three vases are porcelain. In our opinion one of them was probably made in the 1920s, another looks to be from the 1930s or '40s and the final one may be late 19th century but is more likely to be early 20th century. In other words, when the Japanese invaded, two of these pieces were relatively new, and one may not have even been made yet.The porcelain traditionally made by the Chinese is called "true" or hard paste porcelain and is made using "Petuntse" (china stone) and "Kaolin" (china clay). Hard paste porcelain is not porous, cannot be scratched with a steel knife, is white or whitish in color, and generally (but not always) translucent.The Chinese developed porcelain over a period of years, but the true beginnings are generally associated with the Song Dynasty (960 - 1280 A. D.). Europeans did not learn the secret of making Chinese style hard paste porcelain until the early 1700s at Meissen in Germany.The three pieces of Chinese porcelain are all signed, but we believe these marks are fraudulent, and Chinese marks in general should never, ever be taken at face value. We feel the piece we mentioned earlier from the 1930-40 period, is probably a brush washer, and has a spurious seal mark of the Emperor Qianlong who reigned from 1735 to 1796.The vase with the dark blue glaze and the figures of what appears to be the goddess of mercy, Guanyin, has the nien-hao (six-character mark) of the Emperor Yongzheng (1723 - 1735). Unfortunately, the work on the vase is not in the style of that period and the mark is much too big and poorly drawn.The third piece -- the one we like best ---also has the nien-hao of Yongzheng, but it is not of that period. This is a nice Qing style monochrome vase in a pleasing blue with a dragon curled around the mouth.Again, we feel very strongly that this piece is not of the period but there is a long shot that it may have been made during the late Qing dynasty, which ended in 1911.It is hard to assign an insurance replacement value to these pieces without seeing them in person, but their cumulative value probably does not exceed $750.Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson are the authors of the "Price It Yourself" (HarperResource, $19.95). Contact them at Treasures in Your Attic, 5201 Kingston Pike, Suite 6 - 323, Knoxville, TN. 37919)