four character mark vintage porcelain cream and sugar, hand-painted Chinese Immortals pattern?

Late 1800s or early 1900s vintage export porcelain cream pitcher and sugar bowl with four character mark (I'm not at all certain that we've shown this positioned right side up... if it's wrong way round, I'm sorry!). This is hand painted with a crowd scene of wise old gentlemen, and has tiny painted boys or peasants supporting each piece as the feet.

We thought this was a very unusual and interesting pattern, but have been able to find out nothing at all about it. We've roughly guessed the age only from the shape and size of these pieces, and we know nothing as to the marking or the painted design, even though I've spent a week digging around in a ton of old books and magazines, and searching the internet.

I thought the design was Chinamen, not samurai or Japanese nobles, but now I'm not even sure about that. And although I don't believe this looks exactly right for Nippon porcelain (we seldom find Japanese china pieces marked in characters, and with this being typically western shapes for the export market, thought it odd to be marked only as it is, without Japan or Nippon marked), I can't feel positive it's Chinese. Please, if you know anything about this pattern, or the fable or characters it represents, email us and tell us a little about it. We'd love to hear from you.

Now... what we do know about these pieces. The sugar bowl stands about 3 1/2" tall to the top of the lid, and has some tiny chips to the rim of both the bowl and the lid. The cream pitcher looks fine, no chips. And the paint on both pieces looks very good, too.