Observer modeling must first have a basic concept of modeling in past dynasties. The modeling of ceramics, generally simple in ancient times, has become more and more complicated with the evolution of the times. As far as the modeling of Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties is concerned, the modeling of Yuan Dynasty is mostly plain and naive, and blue and white porcelain is more prominent than that of Song and Ming Dynasties. Especially the jars, cans, bottles, cans, plates, bowls and other utensils commonly used in daily life often have considerable shapes.
For example, the caliber of the handed down Yuan blue-and-white and glazed red bowls is 42 cm, and the caliber of the blue-and-white and glazed red bowls is also about 45 ~ 58 cm. Because the matrix is thick, it is not easy to fire, and there are inevitably some defects such as warping, flattening, concave heart and convex bottom, so there are many theories about porcelain roughness in the previous literature, which are not comprehensive enough. The colorful decorative patterns of Yuan porcelain are not self-evident, that is, in large-scale modeling, the twelve-petal plates along the flower mouth are mostly flower mouth and flower bottom (both mouth and bottom are twelve-petal flower shapes), which shows that they were carefully made at that time and were not easily let go. This practice disappeared after Yong and Xuan in the Ming Dynasty (Yong and Xuan only saw flower bowls and medium bowls for washing, but there was no flower tray).
In Yongle, the bottoms of plates and bowls were mostly convex and concave, and the circles were larger and more stable than those in Yuan Dynasty. Especially the tire soil is fine and the shape is suitable. In Yongle period, a kind of pure white vessel with dark flowers appeared, and its body was very thin. People in the Qing Dynasty described a poem called "Afraid of the wind blowing away, but also worried about selling in the sun". This kind of "as thin as an egg curtain" porcelain is exquisitely shaped, such as plates and bowls. Although there are imitations in later generations, they are still inferior in the decorative skills of dark flowers.
Xuande porcelain has a wide variety of shapes, such as plates, bowls, cups, pots, altars and bottles, which are very exquisite and can be original and innovative. For example, "The Warriors" can be called an unprecedented work, and there are few such imitations in future generations except those copied during the Qianlong period. At present, the common styles handed down from generation to generation in Yong and Xuan Dynasties are: chicken heart bowl, watering flowers, monk's hat pot, long round belly holding pot (the spout is gourd-shaped), celestial globe bottle, flat belly ribbon gourd bottle, four seasons horn animal ear bottle, diamond fancy washing, diamond fancy handle bowl and so on. During the Chenghua period, he kept improving on porcelain, with delicate and exquisite shapes and no grandeur.
Although Hongzhi porcelain handed down from ancient times is not much, it is famous for its yellow glazed double-ear jars and bowls. During Zheng De's period, the most prominent shapes were penholder, screen, pier bowl, millstone incense box, seven-hole halberd round-bellied goblet bottle and so on. After Jia and Wan, the modeling became more and more complicated, and there were also many innovations in the shape of the instrument. It has been recorded in the literature that "nothing is done, nothing is done."
As far as stationery is concerned, there are pen containers, pen boxes, pens, water washing, inkstones, color swatches, color boxes (commonly known as Yu Wen), Yin He and so on. There are also large fish tanks, large pots, large bottles, and large plates (the diameter of Jiajing Huangdi blue and white plate is 80 cm). The shape of the container is especially superior to that of the Yuan Dynasty; Others, such as empty bottles, wall bottles, boxes, square bucket cups, lampstands, embroidered piers and so on, are too numerous to mention. It can be said that it is both heavy, light and gorgeous in style, but it is relatively rough compared with the works of Yong, Xuan and Cheng.
By the Qing dynasty, the shapes and types of utensils had increased significantly, and they were beautifully made. Among them, the innovative works in Kangxi period are unique. Knives such as Pipa Zun, Ma Tizun, Elephant Leg Zun, Phoenix-tailed Zun, Guanyin Zun, Taibai Zun, Apple Zun, Apricot Leaf Zun, pestle bottle, cloth orange, upside down, willow leaf and flower bud are all rare in the previous generation. During the Yongzheng period, there also appeared a variety of vessel modeling creations, such as Double Deer Zun, Three Sheep Zun, Qiu Er Zun, Reuters Zun, Luozi Zun, Niutou Zun, Garlic Belt Ruyi Zun, Lip-skimming Olive Bottle, Taibai Altar and Chrysanthemum Plate.
In particular, the imitations of the famous kilns in Song Dynasty, harmony and porcelain, are not only vivid in glaze color and decoration, but also more realistic in shape. During the Qianlong period, the outstanding models were rotary neck bottle, rotary heart bottle, rotary belt bottle, flower basket, fan, book-style Yin He and book-style golden bell jar. During this period, both innovation and archaization reached a climax, and the imitations of copper, stone, lacquer, jade, bamboo, wood and elephant products were very similar. After Jiaqing and Daoguang, most of them followed the old system and there were few innovative works. Modeling from exquisite to clumsy, gradually lost the excellent tradition of the early stage. For example, the shape of the jade pot spring bottle was not obviously different in Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong generations, but gradually became clumsy. In Tongzhi, Guangxu and Xuan Tong periods, it became a short and thick shape with a short neck and a full belly, and its shape was far less beautiful than before.
After understanding the basic characteristics of porcelain modeling in Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, we need to master the method of observing modeling. Generally, we should pay attention to the mouth, abdomen and bottom first. At first glance, many similar ships are very similar in appearance. If we carefully observe these three parts, we can draw different conclusions. For example, in the mid-Ming Dynasty, the shapes of knives such as bottles, pots and cans mostly left obvious joint marks on the abdomen, but after the Qing Dynasty, such joint marks were not obvious because of the meticulous rotary cutting.
The so-called fine line difference often plays a very important role in dating and distinguishing fakes. Another example is that the radian of the disk in Yuan Dynasty is small and shallow, while that of Yong and Xuan in Ming Dynasty is slightly deep, with the former having a small bottom and the latter having a large bottom. Especially the Yongle style, regardless of the size of the dish or bowl, the center of the vessel is concave and the bottom of the vessel is convex, and the inner wall of the foot is slightly inclined outward, which is about one-half to one-quarter shorter than the outer wall.
Others, such as plates and bowls of many folk kilns in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, often have obvious wheel-shaped cuts (so-called "jumping knives"), but they are extremely rare in official kiln porcelain. As for the Kangxi market, there are plenty of double-ring bottoms, and there are many "hemp lines" under the three-color flat bottom of the folk kiln, which is also a common feature of modeling at that time. Cultural relics workers take these as part of the basis when distinguishing the old from the new.
Some fine products that are close to the previous generation or imitated by later generations are often difficult to distinguish because of the similarity between decorative paintings and fetal glaze raw materials. For example, Yong and Xuan Qinghua left the bowl with three layers of ornamentation painted inside and four layers of ornamentation painted outside. Moreover, at first glance, the fetal glaze is almost the same, all of which are skimming and winding. However, if we compare them carefully, we will find that the important difference between them lies in the different convergence degree of the lower part of the bowl belly, that is, Yongle bowl belly is full and Xuande bowl belly is slightly cut. The imitation Chenghua blue-and-white bowl skimming in Yongzheng period also has the disadvantage of slightly cutting the belly of the bowl in shape.
These subtle differences are all based on defects caused by technical conditions such as molding and kiln firing, or accidental negligence (the shape of imitation is often more or less different from that of the original, because although it was made according to the original when copying, it was exactly the same as the original before firing, but after high temperature firing, its shape is different from the original in some places. This may be due to the inconsistency between the preparation of raw materials and the fineness of refining, but the result of vertical and horizontal contraction and expansion after high temperature is the key to identify the shape of the detector.
As for some imitations that are just hearsay or speculation, such as all kinds of so-called "Yongle hand cups" copied by later generations, the shapes are becoming more and more strange (from Jia to Wan, the imitations are getting bigger and bigger, and even later they become big bowls without cups). As long as you have seen the real thing, you will naturally not speculate.
Second, there are different patterns and colors in different periods.
The decoration on ceramics, like modeling, has distinct characteristics of the times, and due to the continuous enrichment and improvement of raw materials and techniques for painting porcelain, it has its levels and characteristics in different periods in terms of theme, content and expression, which has become a powerful clue to divide the times and identify the authenticity.
Generally speaking, the development process of porcelain decoration is nothing more than from simple to complex, from carving, printing, pasting, carving to description, from simple color to colorful. For example, the abnormal lotus petal (commonly known as "No.8") pattern commonly used in Yuan porcelain evolved on the basis of gold porcelain decoration, especially the appearance of underglaze colors such as blue and white and underglaze red in Yuan dynasty, which opened up a new era of porcelain decoration and broke the monotonous situation of monochrome glaze in the past.
After Ming and Qing Dynasties, the invention of various colors enriched the decoration of porcelain, and the appearance of each decoration method had its own process of production, growth and development, so it can also be used to infer the age of objects. For example, the early blue-and-white and underglaze red were not so beautiful because they didn't fully grasp the characteristics of raw materials in Yuan Dynasty products, while underglaze red often had the shortcomings of gray tone, reddish brown or grayish black or even scattered. However, most of the mature blue and white and red ornamentation in glaze in Yuan Dynasty are very exquisite. The pattern not only attaches importance to the coordination of primary and secondary, but also adopts multi-layer continuous lace decorative patterns. No matter how many stones and flowers are left outside, the blank edges of a circle are not filled with color, forming a unique style (this painting method gradually disappeared after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, although it was occasionally used, it was rarely used. )
In addition, due to the limitation of raw material composition, painting also has different characteristics of the times. For example, some porcelains imported at the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty have unstable colors and are not suitable for painting figures. Therefore, there were fewer people in the Yuan Dynasty, and there were also fewer people in Yongle, and there were more women and fewer men in Xuande. As for Chenghua Doucai, although it is bright and lovely, it is also limited by raw materials and technology, and has the disadvantage of "flowers have no shady side and leaves have no negative side". Moreover, the painted figures, regardless of men, women and children, wear light clothes all year round, and there is no difference between the inside and outside of the rendered clothes. Similar to these, the decorative patterns are characterized by the times and are often ignored by later imitators. If we can pay attention to it, it will naturally help to identify the authenticity.
In addition, we can also find some differences in color application in the times. For example, according to the physical data we have now, Chenghua paintings are not black. At that time, in addition to drawing blue lines with underglaze cobalt, red and ochre were also used to draw outlines. If we encounter a Chenghua colored porcelain with a black outline on the glaze, we must doubt whether it is true and reliable, because the application of black outline did not exceed Zheng De's early days at the earliest. Others, such as pastels, are known to have appeared before the late Kangxi period, and it is hard to believe that pastel-painted imitation porcelain is not a fake.
As for the Qianlong period, due to the extensive use of foreign colors and the absorption of western decorative patterns, some works only seek meticulous lines and peculiar decorative patterns, so some patterns have lost their inherent national style. This kind of porcelain has more products after the middle dry period. Others, such as the official kiln porcelain of Zhengde period in Ming Dynasty, are also decorated with Arabic characters. There are also western decorative patterns painted on export porcelain in the Qing Dynasty, which are unique decorations with distinctive characteristics of the times.
The products of Ming and Qing dynasties are still different in the characteristics of using words as porcelain decoration. For example, some porcelains in the Ming Dynasty wrote Sanskrit, Confucian classics, and the words of longevity, while those decorated with big poems, big words, big songs, big fu, big tables and big fu were works in the Kangxi period. For example, this kind of vessel with only words and no pictures is rarely copied in past dynasties. Understanding this point is also of great reference value to the specific work of judging the times and distinguishing authenticity.
According to the brushwork of decorative patterns, we can also see the characteristics of the times. For example, Kangxi porcelain attached great importance to the method of painting porcelain at that time, so the achievements of official kiln and private kiln porcelain in this respect were very impressive, and the patterns and decorations on porcelain mostly imitated the brushwork of famous artists. As far as the method of drawing trees is concerned, Kangxi's branches like to use leather whip, which looks old-fashioned and powerful, while Yongzheng Cai's branches only depict points. Although the technique is fine, the brushwork is delicate and boring. If we can see the brushwork carefully from its ups and downs, it will naturally help our appraisal work.
As for the decorative patterns of official kilns in Ming and Qing dynasties, most of them are neat and dull, while the decorative patterns of folk kilns are vivid and extensive, which are all well-known characteristics. However, there are so-called "imperial restrictions and departmental restrictions" in official kilns, and there are often works similar to official kilns in folk kilns, mostly in the Qing Dynasty.
When it comes to official kiln and folk kiln porcelain, it is easy to think of the so-called "official kiln dragon five claw, folk kiln dragon three claw or four claws". Generally speaking, this typical decorative pattern of feudal society certainly provides us with clues to judge the authenticity and distinguish the kiln mouth, but it is not absolute. On the contrary, there are five-claw dragons in folk kiln porcelain, and three-claw and four-claw dragons in official kiln porcelain. For example, Xuande Imperial Kiln Blue-and-White Sea Water Dragon Spherical Bottle and a large number of Kangxi Imperial Kiln Blue-and-White Fish Dragons are all painted with three-claw dragons, and Kangxi Imperial Kiln Green Space Su San Cai Yun Dragon Pencil Box is painted with four-claw dragons. In Yuan Dynasty, there were three-claw, four-claw and five-claw blue-striped wares in folk kilns, and there were many such examples in Ming and Qing porcelain.
The decorative patterns on the official kiln porcelain are often inseparable from the hobbies and wishes of the supreme ruler at that time. For example, Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty was superstitious about Taoism, so he liked to decorate it with gossip, immortals, clouds and cranes. Daoguang in Qing Dynasty liked birds, dogs and insects, so this kind of pictures also appeared more. Another example is that there is a tendency to appreciate porcelain in the Qing Dynasty. As usual, the porcelains given by emperors of Yong, Gan, Jia, Dao and Xian dynasties are mainly blue-and-white lotus flowers on a white background, and most of them are painted with sea water patterns (this bottle has nine layers of patterns). The meaning of using this decorative pattern is said to mean that officials attach importance to purity (harmony of purity), lotus is clean (harmony of lotus base), and sea water symbolizes peace in the world.
Others, such as a barrel (series) of ten thousand years (evergreen), two crabs (one) spreading reeds (one), three sheep (Yang) opening Thailand, forty-six sons, five-LUN map, six-country seal, seven treasures, eight treasures, nine climbing lotus, hundred blessings, hundred longevity, red bat (Hongfu) and Qitian, are all full of feudal colors.
In addition, it is not uncommon for some commonly used porcelain ornamentation to get strong circumstantial evidence in contemporary silverware, lacquerware, bronzes and even embroidery. If we can draw inferences from one example and confirm each other, we can often find the characteristics of the times and find out the laws of * * *, so we need to know the outstanding characteristics of the times in porcelain decoration in past dynasties like the back of our hand.
For example, Yuan porcelain's twisted lotus petals and stone flowers are not filled with color, Yong and Xuan porcelain's morning glory and sea water buds, porcelain's palindromes wear flowers, Jia and Wan porcelain's flowers hold figures and Taoist paintings, Kangxi porcelain's double peony, moonlight plum blossom, Yongzheng porcelain's bouquets, and Qianlong porcelain's flowers hold the icing on the cake, which plays an important role in distinguishing authenticity.
In a word, observing porcelain ornamentation should not only consider its development process from simple to complex, from one color to colorful, but also pay attention to its theme content, brushwork structure, style of the times and materials used, and refer to other circumstantial evidence, so as to get a preliminary understanding. Of course, we can't jump to conclusions, because the imitations made by so-called re-kiln coloring, old tire carving and adding dark flowers are often confusing enough. We must further combine the characteristics of other aspects and conduct a comprehensive analysis and research.
Third, master the laws of Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Determining the authenticity of porcelain according to the description is an important link in the identification work. Because the current handed down products and imitations are mostly Ming and Qing porcelains, and the official kilns in Ming and Qing dynasties have many year models, each with its own characteristics. As far as the Ming Dynasty is concerned, there is a saying that "Yongle has few sports, Xuande has many sports, Chenghua has fat sports, Hongzhi has beautiful sports, Zhengde has respect for sports, and Jiajing has miscellaneous sports". Therefore, to study the brushwork of each generation, we should first pay attention to its brushwork characteristics, such as horizontal, vertical, left, grip, hook, pick, point and shoulder, and we must carefully understand and compare them to help identify the authenticity.
Because everyone's calligraphy is different, the font for writing official kiln money must be selected and have a certain level. Therefore, people who write imitation money must imitate it carefully for fear of differences. If you are too cautious, you will inevitably be embarrassed, and your brushwork will not be natural and vivid. This flaw can only be seen by repeated confirmation in combination with real objects. But this textual research alone is not enough, especially before the Yuan Dynasty, there was no official official kiln year for porcelain. Although according to the literature, there was porcelain with the words "Jingdezhen Year System" in the Northern Song Dynasty, there was no real thing. I have only seen fragments of Yaozhou kiln with the words "Daguan" and "Zheng He" printed on it. There were only a few vessels with "official residence", "Taixi" and dry branches in the Yuan Dynasty. Although the Ming and Qing dynasties had the skill of knowing money, the fonts copied in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China were very realistic and extremely difficult to identify. It is necessary to compare their fonts and positions in detail at the same time to avoid mistakes.
For example, as far as the existing objects are concerned, we can only see that there is a four-character seal script written, carved or printed in the center of the vessel, while there is a six-character seal script recorded in the literature, but there is no object, and we have never seen a vessel with a year on the knife, but there are four-character or six-character seal scripts written in the vessel or at the foot.
Another example is Xuande's so-called "Xuande's annual salary is full." Generally located in the center of the foot or the center and mouth of the circular device, or around the mouth, shoulder, waist and foot of the cutter. In some cases, there are even two models (such as acacia cover box, stationery box, etc.). ). This kind of money is vertical and horizontal, with more six characters and less four characters. As for the arrangement of Jiajing's annual payment, it is more complicated than before. In addition to single-line horizontal models and double-line straight models, there are also ring models and cross models. And so on, all need to further master its laws.
Generally speaking, in terms of fonts, the Ming dynasty used regular script (with a few exceptions such as Yongle, Xuande, Hongzhi and others); Shunzhi and Kangxi Dynasties in Qing Dynasty were also popular periods of regular script (Kangxi's seal script was less than 1%), and Yongzheng's seal script was more than regular script. Because Qianlong began to pay more regular script, it became the mainstream after Jiaqing, and it was not until the late Qing Dynasty that the trend of regular script was restored. Regular script and seal script in Ming and Qing dynasties also have different styles, which can be said to be diverse.
Secondly, you should also carefully observe the color of the model. For example, most porcelain styles in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were blue and white. If you look at the blue and white of the Ming dynasty with a magnifying glass, most of them sink deeply, and so do the imitations of the early Qing dynasty. After the light, the imitation cyan is loose and shallow. In particular, the colors of Xuande often appear in black, blue, gray and other colors on the same object. Although it is not beautiful, it is difficult for future generations to follow suit.
From the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, the colors of styles increased a lot, including red, green, black, blue, purple and gold, and methods such as engraving, engraving, printing and overlapping were also used. However, the styles and methods of carving, carving, printing and stacking of imitations have not decreased in color. Only by careful distinction can we see that they have their own calligraphy characteristics because of different materials and techniques, and at the same time we can roughly judge the authenticity of their times and the quality of porcelain. For example, the word "Kang" in Kangxi's blue-and-white body is mostly half water (water) or open water (water), and it is rarely written as Thai water.
However, due to the characteristics of raw materials and the limitation of borders, the Kang characters of Kangxi Imperial Collection are not easy to stretch. For example, Qianlong used to use blue and white collections, and later used red collections. Moreover, most of the porcelain collected by Kang, Yong and Gan in the Qing Dynasty were high-quality official kilns. The use and writing of characters and even the number of words have certain rules to follow.
For example, in the Ming Dynasty, some official kilns were numbered with "Nian" and some with "Nian", while in the Qing Dynasty, official kilns all used "Zhi", and no useful word "Zao" has been found. Others, such as the word "De" written by Xuande, the word "Cheng" written by Chenghua has the characteristics of "nodding one's head and bending one's waist", and the word "Wan" written by Wanli is also different from the word "Yang". More than 90% of the porcelain with the words "Kangxi Imperial System" was newly made at that time. These are all noteworthy places in the appraisal work.
In addition to the general official kiln model, there are also many folk kiln models with year models in Ming and Qing porcelain. But most of them are made in Jingdezhen, and it is extremely rare for foreign kilns to write money. In addition to the above chronology knowledge, there are so-called names of churches (Zhonghetang and Shendetang), temples (such as Tihetang and Palace of Gathered Elegance), occult names (such as Yi Guxuan and Chen Dingxuan), fasting names (such as Zhuo Cunzhai and Zhai), auspicious words (such as Youtong and Dehua Changchun), and eulogies (such as "Long Life Without Bounds" and "Hongfu Qitian"). Xin Chou's annual system), support money (for example, "Zhang, a disciple of Lijingtang Village, Dejiao, Shuncheng Township, Yushan County, Xinzhou Road, paid a vase for the incense burner and prayed for the safety of his family. I remember that in April of the eleventh year, a marshal Hu of Xingyuanzu Temple made a confession. " "Before the Mid-Autumn Festival of Emperor Jiazi of Kangxi, Ji Dan offered sacrifices to the Buddha at Putuo Temple.") and so on.
In a word, we should not only pay attention to the brushwork, font, position, color, number of words, structure, etc., but also know that there are still inconsistencies in the brushwork of the same period in the previous, middle and later periods, and we should also keep its characteristics in style and tone. Therefore, we must confirm each other. If there is any doubt, we will do further deliberation and discussion. What's more, there are new things in imitations, old models and fake colors, mainly according to the shape, followed by various characteristics such as decorative patterns and fetal glaze, in order to have a more reliable discrimination step by step.
Fourth, carefully observe the characteristics of fetal glaze.
Due to the differences of times and regions, there are more or less obvious differences in the composition and firing methods of fetal glaze, so we must never leave this careful observation when identifying a ceramic. When observing the enamel of ancient porcelain, we should generally pay attention to its thickness, luster, bubble size and density. For example, old porcelain has a luster called "bright light" or "crisp light", and this deep and moist glaze is naturally formed due to age. Most new porcelains are "burning" and harsh, but some imitations can be cleaned up after tea-making, pulping, medicine-soaking and burial (if you look closely with a magnifying glass, you can find flaws and unnatural luster).
On the contrary, some well-preserved old porcelain has never been unsealed, but once unsealed, its luster is still as bright as new (if you encounter this brand-new old porcelain, you should consider it in detail from the aspects of shape, enamel, color, decoration and style). Therefore, it is also unreliable to rely only on the so-called "loss of light" as a long-standing proof.
For example, there are so-called stripes of different sizes on old porcelain, such as willow stripes, cow hair stripes, crab claw stripes, roe stripes, eel blood stripes and ice cracks. Although these stripes have become the natural features of Song Guan Kiln, Ge Kiln, Ru Kiln and other porcelains, later imitations can also make similar stripes by manpower. Especially in the Yong and Gan dynasties, Jingdezhen's products imitating officials and brothers were the most chaotic, and it was easy to be confused with a little carelessness. Therefore, it is necessary to further observe the size and density of bubbles contained in the glaze, so as not to be dazzled by illusion. For example, the glaze bubbles in Guan and Ge kilns are as dense as beads, while the glaze in Ru kilns is as sparse as the morning star, and the glaze in Xuande has the so-called "brown eyes", which is not easy to imitate and can be used as a clue to divide the times.
In addition, when observing enamel, we should also pay attention to the thickness of glaze layer, glaze shrinkage and dripping state. For example, Song Jun kiln glaze is as thick as fat, Ding kiln glaze has tears, and Ming and Qing glaze is as thin as egg curtain or jade. These are all valuable features, but the imitation of later generations can be roughly similar. If we don't refer to other characteristics, but pay attention to the inside of the container, the mouth, the soles of the feet and so on. , is often one-sided.
For example, in the Yuan Dynasty, the surface of the cutter is inconsistent with the glaze of the surface, and there are often defects such as kiln crack, glaze leakage, glaze shrinkage and flat clamping. The mouth, bottom, edge and angle of Yongle white glaze ware are mostly white and yellow, while the thick glaze is light bean blue, and the inner and outer glazes of the blade are uniform. On the other hand, the red glaze of Kangxi Langyao has some characteristics, such as the so-called "lip service", "rice soup bottom" and "apple green bottom". These are the places that later imitations are difficult to emulate. As for the enamel color of Jingdezhen official kiln in the Ming Dynasty, there are many interests of hypertrophy, while the enamel color of official kiln in the early Qing Dynasty has a sense of compactness, but there are exceptions in general, and there are many imitations in this respect in later generations. Therefore, it is not enough to break the authenticity of porcelain only by enamel, and it is necessary to further study its fetal quality.
Identification of fetal quality is mainly to observe the foot. Generally speaking, in the Yuan Dynasty, the bottom of the vessels was bare and thick, and the rich porcelain in the Ming and Qing Dynasties hung glaze on the bottom (but there were a few glazed at the bottom and no glaze around), but after the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the number of exposed tires became less and less. However, no matter the vessels of any era, most of them can see the characteristics of fetal cremation on the edge or mouth of the ring foot of the tire dew and glaze on the tire body. For example, Yuan porcelain tires were rough and full of flint red, while Ming and Qing porcelain tires were white and delicate, containing little impurities, and flint red also decreased or even disappeared. On the one hand, these marks the continuous progress of the tire soil scouring method with the passage of time, and at the same time, it naturally forms a watershed between truth and falsehood.
Take the sand bottom vessels of Yongxuan in Ming Dynasty as an example. Because the material selection and cooking process is thicker than that of Yuan Dynasty, although it inevitably contains trace impurities and forms dark brown stars, it has few uneven shortcomings and feels moist and delicate by hand. However, in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the sand-bottomed vessels and imitations of later generations were relatively rough. For example, Chenghua porcelain has always been known for its purity and delicacy. When exposed to light, it is mostly white or pink, with a luster as fat as milk. Although the imitation porcelain of Yongzheng official kiln has made considerable achievements in modeling, decoration and color tone, its enamel and fetal quality are also very realistic on the surface, but if exposed to light, it will be pure white or slightly blue.
This is of course related to the change of raw material quality. For example, Jiajing porcelain is not as good as the previous dynasty, which generally comes down to the gradual exhaustion of "Ma Cang Tu". There was a saying in Introduction to Natural History that "it is very different from the past to forgive the soil gradually". However, we should not be too attached to the theory of tire soil color thickness, because even the porcelain clay produced in Jingdezhen at the same time was never collected from one or two pits, so some were delicate and smooth, some were delicate but not moist, and some were even quite rough. Moreover, the composition of tire soil is also the key to determine tire quality. Moreover, due to the different manufacturing methods and curing conditions, the tire color has some differences, such as pure white, yellowish, slightly gray or slightly blue, so if the carcass itself is used,
Some objects with thin carcass, such as bodiless porcelain, Yongle porcelain, Chenghua porcelain, etc., are difficult to distinguish the color of the tire soil because the exposed tire is very small. Some of them, even if they are not thin tires, are not exposed because of foot binding and fire, or because of the influence of kiln fire, the color of the exposed tires has changed. For example, there are many examples of so-called "purple mouth and iron feet" vessels in Song, Ming and Qing porcelains. These seem to be important conditions for identification, but if we look sideways, we can find that the color of the inner tube that is not directly calcined by kiln fire is not the case.
At the same time, after years of pollution, it is difficult to distinguish the original color of the carcass. Therefore, in order to help identify the tire quality, it is sometimes necessary to use specific gravity and sound listening methods (such as the so-called porcelain tire sound is crisp, the cylindrical tire is heavy and hard, and the plasma tire carcass is light and soft). As for objects with Zhi Ding marks, it is also helpful to carefully check the size, shape, quantity and color of nail marks.
Generally speaking, Yong, Xuan and Cheng porcelain tires are lighter than Yuan porcelain, and Xuande wares are heavier than Yongle wares. If Yuan and Ming wares are divided into sections, the difference in the thickness of the mouth is not very big, mainly the difference between the body and the bottom. Other black glazed round carved vessels of Song Jizhou Kiln newly imitated by later generations always feel crisp (the so-called sound is "cold" in the terminology of ancient porcelain researchers), but the real voice feels hoarse, which is also an obvious example.
It can be seen that the method to distinguish fetal glaze is to distinguish its color with eyes, measure its thickness, examine its grain and observe its bubbles, or to distinguish its thickness by rubbing with hands and to examine its sound by tapping with fingers. It can be said that the combination of ears, eyes and hands will not be limited to the surface, nor will it be limited to a grid. In particular, we should seriously study all kinds of imitations of the old blank, the improvement of new colors and glazes, the redrawing of the old colors, and the new works of the old white glazes, such as hidden flowers and patterns.
It is one-sided to be satisfied with local characteristics and lose the overall conditions, or to only look at the appearance and ignore the interior, or to only look at the glaze color without asking about the fetal quality. Therefore, the identification methods such as modeling, ornamentation, brushwork, enamel and fetal quality must be used at the same time in order to achieve the same goal through different routes and achieve comprehensive and consistent results.
I hope you will be satisfied with my answer ~