How to distinguish ancient porcelain

Identify the secrets of the authenticity of ancient porcelain

The first move: full of beauty. The more artistic the porcelain, the more worthy of collection. The ancient porcelain, especially the official kiln porcelain, were produced regardless of cost and pursued the highest artistic effect. Therefore, good antiques have extremely high artistic aesthetic value in terms of form, craft, color and pattern. Therefore, the first thing to choose to collect porcelain is to choose visually to give people a higher aesthetic enjoyment. On the other hand, the most basic thing for collection is to bring people spiritual aesthetic pleasure. If you really like a piece of porcelain, even if it is not a real antique, it will bring people a very high aesthetic pleasure, it is also a beautiful thing. This collection will make you happy. Grasping such a state of mind to learn a collection will make the learning process easier and more comfortable.

The second measure: Take a 10x magnifying glass and look at the “bubbles” on the porcelain surface. If the “bubbles” are completely uniform, they are fired in modern electric kilns and gas kilns. The actual surface of ancient porcelain fired in a firewood kilns should have air bubbles of varying sizes, and there will be very large “broken bubbles”. This is due to the physical changes of the old porcelain itself that cannot be imitated. It should be noted that when looking with a magnifying glass, it is best to look at the "blue and white" pattern on the surface of porcelain, which can be seen more clearly when the background is colored.

The third measure: Use a finger to shoot a vessel and listen to its sound. This trick applies to large-sized porcelain such as large plates and large bowls. One hand hung to hold the bottom of the porcelain, and the other hand flicked the edge of the porcelain with your finger. If you have a good ancient porcelain, you will hear sounds like the sound of bells and melodious sounds, and the lingering noises will continue for a long time, not comparable to ordinary porcelain.

How to identify the age of ancient porcelain

In terms of porcelain, the most popular collectors at present are the five famous kilns of the Song Dynasty, the porcelains of the Chenghua, Yongle and Xuande eras of the Ming Dynasty. The finest of the Qing Dynasty was the Yongzheng period, then the Kangxi and Qianlong years. Porcelain was also sought after by collectors in the past.

How to identify the age of ancient ceramics? The identification of ancient ceramics is a very complex and comprehensive technology. To master it, it takes a lot of effort. Competent appraisers must be familiar with the production of ceramics in China for thousands of years in order to make accurate judgments in terms of fetal quality, glaze color, shape, ornamentation, style, and even weight. For beginners, you can grasp the methods of discriminating ancient ceramics, and then gradually master the tricks. Simply put, it is to judge according to the characteristics of ceramic quality and glaze in each period.

In general, the age and the kiln mouth can be seen from the quality of the tire and the glaze. For example, the Qing dynasty porcelain of the Warring States period more than 2,500 years ago, also known as the original celadon, is the lower stage of celadon. Its tires are gray and gray-brown, and the quality of the fetal material is firm and porcelain is high; the glaze is blue and the glaze layer Thin, uneven thickness. This was due to the fact that the glaze method was used for glazing.

The glaze for the five generations is azure. According to legend, after the Five Dynasties, the Chai Shizong refers to the sunny sky, and said to the official who asked him to use the glaze of the enamel: “A rainy day breaks through the sky and the colors make it the future.” Therefore, the five-generation enamel was consecrated. It is azure. This enamel glaze is lustrous, glazing is thin, and blue light flashes in the blue.

Longquan kiln of the Song Dynasty plum green glaze. This is the best color of Longquan in the Song Dynasty and it is a masterpiece in Qingyou. Its color can be comparable to high-grade jade. The glaze layer is thick, the glazed surface is bright, the vitrification degree is high, the glaze is not open-patterned, and the quality is as bright as jade. Its color is similar to the plum that grows in the plum tree.

The fetal glazes of the Jiangxi porcelains of the Yongle, Xuande, and Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty all had their own characteristics. During the Yongle period, the white glaze was the most famous, with enamel hypertrophy, moist as a pile fat, pure white jade, glazed light and pure crystals, fetal white color, exquisite fetal quality, and uneven thickness. If you look through a bright light, you can see the tendency of the fetal glaze to be pink, red or shrimp red. This feature is not found in other porcelains.

In the Ming Dynasty Xuande years, although it was close to Ming Yongle, porcelain glazes were quite different. In the same vessel, Yongle's fetus is thick, and Xuande's fetus is thin. During the time of Xuande, there were many unglazed parts on the bottom of the large stoneware, and there were often red spots on the exposed tyres, commonly known as "red spots of flint" and rust spots. The imitation Xuande porcelain of Qing Emperor Kangxi and Yong Zhengshi did not have this feature.

The porcelain glaze of Qing Dynasty Kangxi was fine and white, and the quality of the fetal material was pure and delicate. Compared with the same vessel of each dynasty, its carcass was the heaviest. In addition, the same piece of this period, often applied two kinds of white glaze, inside the device, mouth edge, device out the end of powder white glaze, the glaze is thin, often see a small glaze phenomenon; the bottom is still the existing green tire Swivel traces. The body Shi Liang Qing glaze, its glaze shine bright, fetal glaze combined with a very dense. The use of two glazes in one vessel is the greatest feature of the porcelain produced during the Qing Dynasty Kangxi.

In addition, in recent years, the use of scientific instrumentation detection technology to identify the age of ancient ceramics has also become a commonly used important means.

The bottom of ancient porcelain is critical

According to the expert's experience, to determine the authenticity of ancient porcelain, the bottom foot is critical. The bottom foot is the place with the largest amount of information in ancient porcelain. Through the foot, you can see the tire, the glaze, you can see the combination of the fetal glaze, firing process, aging and so on. So, how to identify the authenticity of ancient porcelain from the bottom foot? First of all, it is necessary to grasp the characteristics of various porcelain dynasties, such as the shape of the foot, the quality of the fetus, etc., but also from the following aspects to identify the authenticity of ancient porcelain.

First of all, whether the bottom foot is sticky. The artifacts before the Ming Dynasty had many different degrees of viscous phenomena. There were also sticky sands in the glazes of the porcelain of the Ming and Qing dynasties, but there were few sticky sands in the imitations. Although there are a few sticky sands in the imitations, they are not as dry and aged as the genuine ones. Because the burning process of imitation products is higher than that of ancient times, the glaze is not applied so thick, it will not cause glaze accumulation, making it very little sticky sand.

Second, look at the fetal bone wear at the end of the exposed fetus. In general, the wear of replicas is relatively smooth and not as natural as genuine products. The exposed part of the genuine product appears to be relatively dry and the imitation product appears delicate.

Then, look at the flint red at the base of the exposed tire. The red flint of porcelain in different periods is different, more or less. For example, the Flint Red at the foot of the Ming Dynasty kiln is particularly strong, and the Flint Red of the imitation goods is completely different. Some of them are smeared with sizing glaze, appear frivolous, and some are yellowish.

Finally, look at the foot burn marks. Before the Ming Dynasty porcelain can clearly see the burning marks, but each kiln has a kiln pad burning method. For example, there are sesame sticks and branch burns in the kiln, and the kiln has "falling feet."

Looking at the special features of the foot and foot in each period is mainly to observe the traces of the exposed foot of porcelain at the end of each period. For example, in the Southern Song Dynasty, porcelain was swirled; in the Yuan Dynasty, there were many round marks and chicken hearts. In the Ming Dynasty, there were more radial marks and fewer turns. The porcelain of the Qing dynasty saw almost no trace.

Judging from the bottom of the ancient porcelain, the method is more professional and suitable for collectors who have already accumulated certain experience.