Hello! Connoisseur bear here~ how’s your holiday?  I was having a good time, eat, sleep, eat, sleep, and eat some more…I am now so fat that I will have to get some new pants… oh no!

This week we are going to talk about a Qing famille rose yellow ground dish.  For this dish, our bears think it is interesting since it looked so good, but somehow there are still some small features that are problematic to us.  So, it is a good opportunity for us to discover and learn from this dish.

Preview Entry 8 - HGPY NY Auctions (Asian Fine art and Antiques) 16 January 2016

Qing Famille Rose Dayazhai Yellow Plate

Lot 63

4 Characters (永慶長春) base mark

Estimated: $5,000 - $10,000

For the background information, supposing if this is a genuine piece, this piece is made for Empress Dowager, Cixi (1835-1908).  This group of pieces bear her special ‘Da Ya Zhai’ 大雅齋 (Studio of Great Elegance) marks, and were designed and produced during late Tongzhi period (1862-1874) or the early Guangxu period (1874-1908) (ref 1).  This type of wares are usually grisaille-decorated墨彩, and decorated with floral and bird motifs.

Here are the reasons why we think it is a questionable piece:

Density of the black

As we can see in this section, the motifs are grisaille-decorated, however, they are in a high density of dark color, for example the pedals and the bird.  For the pieces from Palace museum in China, as we can see the motifs are not in that density, and if you put them together we can see the difference.  One interesting side note for the grisaille decoration is, the darker area usually is the shadowed part of the motifs, it is to convey a sense of three dimension.  Feature like this started after Yongzheng period (1678-1735), at that time there were Western missionaries serving in the Qing Court, and they brought the knowledge of Western painting and the idea of linear perspective to Court painters.

Lot 63, Qing Famille Rose Dayazhai Yellow Plate

Yellow Ground Porcelain 'Flower and Butterfly' Plate, Dayazhai Mark, Qing Dynasty Guangxu period.
黃地墨彩花蝶紋盤
Collection of Palace Museum, China.

Glossy Surface/ Perfect Rim

For the glossy surface, we must be careful when we see a piece with glass-like reflection, for older piece it should be in a less reflective/ dull surface.  But please be aware even if you see a dull one.  If you see many scratch marks on a porcelain, it means it is treated with sand paper, people use sand paper to make the piece less reflective and to make it looks older.  For famille rose pieces, the sand paper method cannot be used, since it will remove the glaze.

For the perfect rim, it is also related to the condition of this piece, it is just too perfect, it is covered with brownish glazed completely.  Usually the coating should be damaged a bit.  It means A, it is in a really condition.  B, restored.  C, Modern.  

For reference piece, please see below bowl from British Museum, as you can see the rim is scratched a bit.  Also, the yellow ground is less reflective, perfect than the one from HGPY NY.

Porcelain Bowl, Collection of British Museum 

A side note for the brownish rim is, it seems to be a common feature for late qing imperial pieces to have a brownish rim, unlike previous periods like Qianlong and Yongzheng.

Beautiful, yet weird mark

For the base mark, It was inscribed as “Yongqing changchun” (永慶長春) (eternal prosperity and enduring spring), I must say it is nicely written, much better handwriting than I do.  However~, it is not similar with other Dayazhai pieces.  Please compare the style from this piece and the piece of Palace Museum (sorry for the quality).  

As we can see from the piece of Palace Museum (left), the circled strokes of 慶,長,春 are longer.  For the piece from HGPY NY auctions (right), they seems ‘taller’ and ‘slimmer’.  I must say the mark is the red flag for me.

Reference:

1. Ronald W. Longsdorf. 1966. "The Tongzhi Imperial Wedding Porcelain." Pp. 69-78.  In Orientations. Hong Kong: Orientations Magazine Ltd..

2.   故宮博物院編，《官樣御瓷──故宮博物院藏清代制瓷官樣與御窯瓷器》，北京：紫禁城出版社（2007）。

3.   Bowl, British Museum,  (Ok I admit that lazy for this one)

So!  That’s the analysis for this week!  Time to eat some more~

Also!  Oh my god we got another Like for our Facebook page~~~~~~~~Thank you Chrissy Goh! You know every time when I see a like in our page, I dance in joy and jump around in my home.

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.

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?