Chinese Blue and White Dish (Who to trust?)

So, after a long time, I have come back!!

I have just finished my first semester in anthropology, wrote a ethnography and some papers… I must say it is very inspiring and important to my career.

In our blog, we constantly talk about how to identify fakes, don’t trust the description, we need to perform research before buying anything, these are the rules of being an antique buyer (or connoisseur).  However, for most of the buyers, either rich or lazy, they think that the stuffs from a famous auction house such as Christies, Sothebys or Bonhams, are good enough and trust worthy.  I hope to let you all to know that, even a well-known auction house, the stuffs can also be questionable.  In this week, we will out-perform the specialist in a world class auction house, with our skills.

This time, we will talk about a blue and white dish from previous Christie’s auction.

Preview Entry 7 - Christie's (Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art (Parts I&II) 23 March 2012

An unusual Blue and White Shallow Dish

Lot 2047

6 Characters (大清雍正年製) mark

Estimated: $5,000 - $7,000
Realized Price: $7,500

Like its title, it is really unusual to me, if viewed as an imperial piece from Yongzheng reign, reasons below:

Brownish mouth rim coating

It is one of the key styles of export wares or private kiln production.  We call it as 醬油邊(Soy sauce Rim), the rim is covered with brownish color coating.  If you find one export plate from Yonghzheng and Qianlong reign, you may find this kind of rim, since this kind of rim is very common for the export wares during the mentioned reigns, and the plates with these rims are very sharp.

Checker rim decoration

As we can see near the rim, there is some Checker pattern decoration.  

It is a common style for export wares or private kiln products.  Besides, it is also a common style for Japanese porcelain wares.  However, this pattern should not be decorated on Imperial Yongzheng pieces, I have never come across with a Yongzheng imperial piece with this decoration.

And I found one book from Metropolitan Museum which talks about export ware!  In here you can find some example pieces with this kind of rim decoration.

Poor written mark
It was written as “Dai Qing Yongzheng Nian Zhi” (大清雍正年製) (Made during the reign of Yongzheng).  However to me, there are two problems:

1.      Poor coloring

For the color, it is in dark blue, it is the result of poor firing, either in too high temperature, or firing too long.  It is a quality problem that should not be accepted in imperial production.

2.      Style for the mark

As we can see in here, it is a poor imitation of Yongzheng reign mark.  Few strokes are tilting upward (marked Red), which is a features for later period, it should not be happened in Yongzheng pieces.  The character "Nian" 年 is barely acceptable to me though.  Again it is a quality problem, during Yongzheng reign, there were already workmen assigned solely for mark writing, so the marks should be in consistent style.

Conclusion

To me, the best scenario for this piece is, it is a private kiln production near Guangxu (late qing)/ republic of China or later period.  I would not say it is a fake piece since it is a common practice in the time of Republic of China with an older reign mark, and actually it is a great piece for that period. I do not suggest it is an export ware from Yongzheng period since it is contradictory to for an export ware from Yongzheng reign to bear a reign mark.  Also, the quality of the landscape painting is beyond the quality of an export ware.  If I work in Christie’s, I would suggest it is from 19^th century, instead of 18^th Century.  Also, the buyer would be disappointed if he/ she wish to buy an imperial piece.

 Extra stuff!

Well!  In last week, our facebook page got one new like, it is from Marilyn Loraine!  This time we fell off from chair since we are really lazy these weeks and still have one like.

Preview Entry 6 - New Castle Art & Antique Gallery (Chinese Antiques and Collectibles 11-08-2015)

Hey Hey Hey, Connoisseur Bear is here!  I have noticed that we talked about many good stuffs recently, it’s time to talk about some “questionable” stuff, so that we can practice what we have learnt…

This week we will talk about a Qianlong monochrome dish.

For this dish, like the color itself, is full with red flags!

Chinese Porcelain Red Glazed Dish

Lot 245

4 Characters (乾隆年製) mark

Estimated: $600-$800

1.      Body & Foot rim

For the body of this dish, it is greyish and full of 
black dots (kiln grits), the greyish color and kiln grits (circled) are due to poor firing.  It contradicts with the quality of Qianlong wares already.  During the reigns of Kangxi康熙, Yongzheng雍正, Qianlong乾隆(we call it as Kang Yong Qian 康雍乾), it is the golden age of China pottery craftsmanship, so the quality like this dish is not acceptable at all, the potter who in charge of this dish can be punished for submitting stuffs like this.  

And the foot rim, it is kinda “dirty”, remember the peach bowl we talked about in first week (link)?  The foot rim reflect the quality of the material used, for this dish, it is not very good.  However, the porcelain near the mark is white and smooth, it means that the potter applied a good amount of slip (化妝土) near the mark, so it is white and shiny, but the bad thing for using slip is, it will turn yellow as the time pass.

2.      Mark

This one is too obvious… please have a quick look first.  There are two major issues I want to point out, first is the script style, second is the number of words.

For the script style, we can see that the style of this mark is quite different from the marks we talked about previously, even though they are in the same category, regular script (Kai Shu楷書), there is a slight difference.

Usually if you see fonts are writing in a direction like this, it’s a red flag, since this kind of script style is not used in Qing dynasty, you might find it in Ming dynasty though (still rare), or modern piece.

For the number of words, this one is the real problem.  In this mark, it is written as “乾隆年製”, however, in my knowledge only enamel or glass pieces use a 4 character marks, for the rest it is usually大清乾隆年製, either in regular script or mostly in seal script (Suan Shu篆書).  So this mark contradicts with the style during Qianlong reign.

Due to these two elements, this piece is problematic to me.  However, I do admire the courage for the one who bid this piece, let’s cheer for this person! (slow claps).  It’s a hard and crazy decision for me, or for him, if he read my blog.

wow come on!

Chinese celadon vase, decorated with symbols, marked Kangxi

Preview Entry 5 - Carlo Bonte (Asian Arts Part II 10-28-2015)

A Chinese celadon vase, decorated with symbols, marked Kangxi

Lot 451

6 Characters (大清康熙年製) mark

Estimated: €400 - €600

Realized Price: $7,000

Hey Hey Hey, Connoisseur Bear is here!  Sorry guys I have dragged into the study of anthropology and the readings and paper amount is hellish!!!

This week we will talk about a Kangxi jun 尊 vase.

For this vase, I am quite positive about this vase.  Reasons below:

1.      Shape matters

For this vase, it resembles the shape of jun 尊 vase during Kangxi period, usually besides finding example pieces from museum catalogues and exhibition, we also read different materials related to Chinese antiques.  In one of our Chinese porcelain text book written by Geng Bao Chang, 耿寶昌, he mentioned about the shape of a “jun” vase during Kangxi period, which kind resemble the vase we featured this week.  As we know that, the pieces from imperial kiln are strictly restricted in style, so the form of a vase should not be in a huge variety.

Abstrict from "Ming and Qing porcelain on inspection", 明清瓷器鑒定, page 17

2.      Motif matters

For the motifs on the vase, we usually call them as animal mask, 獸面.  This type of motifs is popular for archaistic bronze wares during Shang dynasty 商朝(c. 1600 BC–c. 1046 BC), and suddenly it is “revived” in Kangxi period.  This kind of motifs is unique in Kangxi reign as it is hard to find animal mask motifs in later reigns.

'Fangyi' Covered Ritual Wine Vessel with 'Taotie' Decor, collection of Harvard Art Museums

3.      Mark matters

We always talk about the mark, that because it represents the written style of certain dynasties and periods.  We have talked about the written style of Yongzheng and Kangxi period in previous entry, which is related to the composition of the Chinese texts.  You guys can refer to it.  The mark of this vase can be resembled to the mark during Kangxi period.

4.      Foot rim matters

Another thing that we always talk about is: foot rim, this is the thing that “gives out” the quality of a ceramic,  as it reveals the body of a porcelain piece.  For celadon pieces during Qing dynasty, we call this type of glaze as 東青釉 (eastern green), which is extremely similar to the celadon glaze in later reigns, 冬青釉 (winter green).  For the pieces that in eastern green or winter green during Qing dynasty, we can see many “rings” in the foot rim, which very similar to the piece we featured this week.  However, one thing to remind you guys is that, if we see this kind of rim in blue and white pieces, it is problematic and usually it is a red flag.

The ring (not the spooky one)

Conclusion: 

Analyzing a Chinese antique is hard, it required years of experience and devotion of learning via reading different books that are academic and reliable.  I hope that I can serve as a bridge for you all to admire the beauty of Chinese ceramics.

Wow!

BESIDES, WE JUST GOT ONE LIKE IN FACEBOOK, SHOUTOUT TO OUR HERO, MICHAEL SHANG!  OUR BEARS ALMOST SHUT THE BLOG AND SCRATCH THEIR TUMMIES BUT NOW WE WILL CONTINUE OUR EFFORTS

celebrate good times come on

Chew your food, Read the Condition report

Hey Hey Hey, Connoisseur Bear is here!  When I was typing yesterday, I just realized our blog is One-month old now!  So I just went out and celebrate, you know just chilling with the writer from World of Animals.

For this week, our topic is “Chew your food, read the Condition Report”, I must say both save life! Why would I say so? It is because the condition report is very important to the decision making. Here is why:

Object condition is important to the cost of restoration

Back into my days working in an antique gallery, they always say “if there is a crack, the price would drop 1/4”.  This saying is true if you do not restore the crack, but if you try to restore the crack, it will also be a huge cost, it can be a huge difference between a hairline crack, and a crack.  And the best part is, even if you are willing to pay and the restoration is good, the specialists from auction houses and the dealers around the world can still find out the restoration.

Object condition is important to the bidding price

Let me give you an example, in two weeks ago, Christies has sold one Doucai Famille Rose 'Sandou' Bowl with 6 characters Yongzheng imperial mark, with a provenance from K'ung Hsiang-Hsi Collection , it only sold for USD$27,500.  On the other hand, in June 2015, a very similar bowl which came from the same K'ung Hsiang-Hsi Collection, has been sold for HK$5,440,000 (around USD$704,589)!  You guys can try to spot the difference lol.

USD$704,589

USD$27,500

Auction’s location is an important matter to the cost of course (we will talk about it in our later article), but the truth behind the USD$27,500 is the condition of that bowl.  I can still remember the damages for this bowl when I checked the condition report, and it must plays a huge part for the decision makings of those bidders.

So what can we do?

1. Read the condition report

Get an account for the auction house you are interested, click and view, how easy is that.

2. Ask the auction house for one

Sometimes if you are looking at sites such as live-auctioneer or invaluable, they do not have the condition report uploaded.  In this case you will have to find the email of that auction house and ask via email.  Besides the condition, you can even ask for more photos of that object!  I have tried this method before and received replies from auction houses, which helps my decision making.

3. See it for yourself

This is a tricky one, but it is possible if the photo is nicely shot.  If you guys still remember, we have come across a Wucai Qianlong dragon bowl two weeks ago, we have found at least 5 chips just by viewing the photo.

And if you are careful enough to view this yellow-ground dragon dish from Bonham, you can find out more…(grey line for un-trained eyes)

So in this week, we talked about the importance of viewing condition report, remember!  READ THE CONDITION REPORT!

Chinese Qing Porcelain Famille Rose Vase

Preview Entry 4 - Doyle (Asian Works of Art 09-14-2015)

A Pair of Chinese Famille Rose Glazed Porcelain Vases

Lot 359

6 Characters (大清光緒年製) mark

Estimated: $800 - $1,200
Realized Price: $7,000

OK, sorry guys for late update!  You know, as a scholar bear, we have to learn more and absorb more knowledge.  In last week, I started my Master Degree in Anthropology and worked really hard!  In this photo you can get a sense how serious I am during study (not joking).  Since this one is a late entry, perhaps I will try to summit two entries this week? Maybe?

For this week, I am really confused for the bidders, why would they bid for these two vases (8 bids currently)? Even Doyle stated they are from 20th century, which is modern.  But I think it is a great opportunity for me to teach you guys how to tell these vases are from private kiln/ modern production.
Brownish mouth rim coating

One of the element of private kiln production can be seen on the mouth rim.  Usually the mouth rim of these wares is covered in a thick brownish color coating.  The using of brownish color as the decorative element is a common practice for private kiln.

Poor written mark

I guess this is one of the worst mark I have ever seen in my life.  It was written as “Dai Qing Guangxu Nian Zhi” (大清光緒年製) (Made during the reign of Guangxu), but it is in a horrible condition and poorly written (state of the art I must say), which further confirm its private kiln origin.  As mentioned in previous entry, a poor mark usually accompany with a poor foot rim, these two vases are also in this case, we can see the foot rim of these two vases are pretty rough, which indicates the body of these two vases are poor.

Cursive calligraphy

For porcelains in later production, usually the written text is in semi-cursive script(行書) and cursive script(草書).  For the calligraphy style used for the imperial kiln during Qing dynasty, usually it is in regular script (楷書).  Also to note that, for some really bad imitation, we can even see text in simplified Chinese (簡體中文), which developed during People Republic of China period.

I must say it is very strange for people to bid for stuffs in condition like this, do they really know what they are bidding for?

Chinese Qing Blue and White Lotus Dish

Preview Entry 3 - Bonhams (Asian Art 09-23-2015)

A Blue and White Saucer Dish

Lot 226

D: 15cm

6 Characters (大清康熙年製) mark

Estimated: £1,500-$2,000

This summer is way too hot!  I hope our progress will not be hindered because of this intense heat.  In this week, we have found one Blue and White “lotus” dish from Bonhams, which is a well-known auction house.  You must say, It must be very expensive if it is from Christies, Sothebys or Bonhams. Right? But it’s not, yeah!  It is in a decent price (estimated price £1,500 - 2,000), and it is with a Kangxi 6 characters imperial mark.

Why Connoisseur Bear think it is a good piece for beginner to collect?

1. Valid color

First of all, we think that this dish is from the period of Kangxi.  The color and the mark for this dish are similar to the pieces in Kangxi reign.  The painters from Kangxi reign were good at depicting blue color, when we examine the blue color, we should see a gradient of blue color, from a purplish rich blue color to a lighted one (see the reference piece from Victoria and Albert museum and the detail of Bonhams Kangxi dish).

Plate made in Jingdezhen, China

1700-1710 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Detail of Lot 226

Bonhams

2. Valid mark
For the mark, it is nicely written, we can see the brush stroke (red circle).  

It also fits the written style of the 6 characters imperial mark during Kangxi reign, we will talk about one of the styles today, for the word “年”, we can see the cross is way upper than the “年” during yongzheng reign, this is one of the fundamental element when we are identifying the reign mark.

Provenance
Stated by Bonhams, it was from Christie’s London, 14 June 1990, Lot 176.  Although we don’t need provenance to seek treasure, for the people with less knowledge in antiques, they need it.  So the piece with provenance is easier to resell, and can sell a better price.

Condition
Finally, this piece is in a good condition.  Stated in the condition report, this dish is slightly wrapped, general wear and some pits.  For the wrapping and pits, it may create during the firing stage.  But we think that if there are no cracks or chips, we saved a lot for the restoration.

For our final advice, this piece is good if it can be bided with £1,500 - 2,000.  Since “lotus” pattern Kangxi dish is a common pattern, the resell value is not as high as the rare one.  If it is beyond £2,000, combined with the Tax, Commission, Transportation, Insurance…etc, it is expensive.

Chinese Qing Wucai Porcelain Bowl

Preview Entry 2 - Steven's Art & Antiques (Asian and European Art & Antiques 08-22-2015)

Polychrome Dragon Bowl

Lot 121

D: 5 3/4"

6 Characters (大清乾隆年製) mark

Estimated: $5,000-$10,000

Starting bid: $2,000

In this week, our bear has found one relatively good piece from Steven’s Art.  It is a Wucai “Dragon and Phoenix” Bowl with 6 characters Qianlong imperial seal mark.  However, this piece has not been sold in that auction.  Rrrrrrrrrrgh!! (People should see this blog!) Our bear roar.

Why Connoisseur Bear think it is not a fake piece?

Here's why:

1. Color and Motifs

First of all, the painting and the mark for this bowl has passed our checks, the color of those motifs matched with the style during Qianlong dynasty.  And the motifs are nicely painted, the mark is nicely written.

2. Proportion

Secondly, it fits the proportion.  Sometimes we may find pieces with doubtful proportion, such as the foot rim is too tall, the mouth rim flair is too long.  However, this bowl is very similar to other “Dragon” bowls during Qianlong dynasty.

3. Clay quality and the damages on the bowl

Thirdly, we think that the damages on this bowl are helping us to identify the ages for this bowl.  For a fake piece, there is no need to create some fake damages and lower its price.  Also, the damages and the foot rim also show the body of this bowl (see red circles), which is white and dense, it shown that this bowl is made with fine quality clay, unlike some fake reproduction in later ages.  And if we examine the dragon inside the bowl, we can see some iron spots near the dragon (black circle), during the firing stage, some iron grits may attached to the porcelain, this phenomenon cannot be seen if you use electric kiln for porcelain production.

So, why no one would buy this bowl? 

First, it may relate to the damages on this bowl.  As we can see in the photos, there are about 4~5 chips, for each chip, it means the seller must send the bowl to a restorer if he would like to sell it again for a better price.  Even in Hong Kong, it is very hard to find a good restorer to fix the chips.  And even if we are lucky enough to find a master to restore this bowl, the price would be costly, and it must be even higher than the original price for this bowl.  And for the second reason, for each chips it means the possibility for further damages on this bowl, if we use flash light and put it behind those chips, we may find some hairline cracks, or even worse, some large cracks, which can further lower the resell price for this bowl.

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Preview Entry 1 - Wensly Auctions (Asian Works of Arts 08-29-2015)

Chinese Qing Porcelain Famille Rose Bowl

Lot 22

2 3/4 x 5 7/8"

6 Characters (大清雍正年製) mark

Estimated: $1,500-$3,000

Starting bid: $200

Hello there!  This is the first entry from our Connoisseur Bear.  In this blog, we will analyze different works of arts from different places, we hope that you can learn from those pieces, and be a good connoisseur, just like our bear!

So, in this week, we are analyzing a Qing Famille Rose Bowl with "Peach" theme.  Qing dynasty bowl with imperial mark is always a number one choice for collectors and dealers, and if it is decorated with Peaches(!), and with a imperial mark(!!), the combination can make the bowl worth over US$3,000,000 (Sotheby's, October 2011, HK0377, Lot16).  But wow, now you can buy it with $200, even our bear sniff around and say this bowl is kinda fishy (not salmon!).

Here's why:

1. High Contrast Peaches

By looking at the peaches, we can see the unnatural color because of the high contrast effect, the tips of those peaches almost turn into purple.  For the genuine one, the color is much natural. See the collection from Metropolitan Museum(MET) for reference:

2. Bat's wings

The next concern we have, is the wings for the bats, please notice the detail of the bat wings from the collection of MET, we can see the "fingers" of the bats, but for the one we featured this one, we cannot see any of them.  For a bowl with imperial six characters mark, it should be in superior quality, so it should not be painted in this way.

3. Bottom rim quality and the mark
Basically, we stop inspecting if there is one thing in doubt.  But since we are here to teach, we will come across the bottom rim(red arrow) and the mark(black arrow) also,

First of all, we will look at the bottom rim first, the rim of this bowl is kinda "dirty", this is one of the red flags.  Bottom rim is where we can see the quality of a porcelain, we must know that the clay used by imperial kiln in Qing court must be in supreme quality, so the bottom rim supposed to be whitish and dense.  For rim like this, usually it happens in late Qing and Republic of China, since the quality of porcelain is affected by the budget of late Qing Court.  But you may see other areas of the bowl are whitish, it is because it is decorated with slip (化妝土), it is not the main body of the bowl.

After this, we will look into the mark, it is written as "Dai Qing Yong Zheng Nian Zhi" (大清雍正年製), which can be translated as "made in the reign of Yongzheng".  With this mark, it indicates this bowl supposed to be made from the imperial kiln during the Yongzheng period, and it is made for the internal use of Qing court.  I must be honest that the character "大，正，年，製" are nicely written, but for the character "清", it is kinda distorted toward the arrow's direction.  But the mark is kinda OK to me, since sometimes our bears can find stuff like this and laugh our ass off.

so these are the opinions and views from my boss, which is a bear.  If there are any questions, please let us know, and we will redirect it to the Connoisseur Bear.