Chinese Ceramic Vase Markings

A complete guide to antique pottery marks porcelain marks and china marks.

Chinese ceramic vase markings.

Another factor to take into consideration is the fact that there is no price discovery mechanism when it comes to chinese antique porcelain meaning a vase may sell today for 1000 but a month later that same or similar vase could sell for 5000 or even 10 000 so its virtually impossible to put an accurate price on a piece in a market so erratic. From imperial marks to the many hall and auspicious marks used by scholars collectors potters and artists this is the essential book for all professional buyers collectors and. Text on balloons with ribbons are chairman mao lives long life the communist party lives long life and mao zhu xi wan sui chairman mao s. 10 understand this understand this is a difficult process and there are no shortcuts to becoming familiar with chinese porcelain marks.

Porcelain a white vitrified ceramic comprised of fine clay was invented in china over 3 000 years ago in the years since artisans have consistently improved the way they craft and mark porcelain objects. The identification and authentication of chinese porcelain is a complex process of an overall verification of a number of factors. The antique marks reference. Chinese craftsmen began using porcelain marks as early as the first century as a way to reference the date of creation.

The qianlong porcelain vase brought to bainbridge s auction house a premium of 8 6 million. See a comparison of chinese and non chinese marks. 53 1 million was the price fetched by this chinese porcelain vase. In the world of ming and qing dynasty art knowing how to look at a reign mark is a key asset for any collector specialist or enthusiast to correctly identify the date and the value of a piece of chinese porcelain.

Porcelain vase made in jingdezhen in 1968 to mark the chinese cultural revolution led by chairman mao. Identifying chinese porcelain involves more than just knowing the mark in order to decide age and manufacturer as many novices do believe. Marks on chinese porcelain pieces are even and regular while marks on japanese porcelain will include an odd number and may be in different colors. It lists around 1 800 marks including all the major ming 1368 1644 and qing 1644 1911 dynasty imperial reign marks in addition to the many studio marks hall marks and myriad miscellaneous.

Reign marks can be found on chinese ceramics mainly from the early ming dynasty 15 th century through to the qing dynasty 1644. The most comprehensive reference book on chinese reign marks is gerald davison s the handbook of marks on chinese ceramics first published in 1994.