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

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.