Discrimination of ceramic styles in past dynasties
The inscription on a ceramic vessel refers to the inscription, marking, printing or writing on the bottom or other parts of the vessel, indicating the time, place of origin, hall name, person's name, purpose, auspicious words, etc. Some of them have certain inscriptions on the bottom or body of the device. Because the content, format, font, calligraphy and other aspects of the inscription have distinct characteristics of the times, it plays an important role in dating ceramics, judging kiln mouth, distinguishing authenticity and so on, and is an important link in identification.
Currency type
Patterns on ceramics can be roughly divided into six categories: chronological patterns, hall patterns, names, Ji Xiangwen and other special patterns.
Chronological model: Chronological model is a model that indicates the firing age of porcelain. Chronology can be divided into two categories: one is to call the year number by the year number of the emperor at that time, such as "the year system of Xuande in Ming Dynasty" and "the year system of Kangxi in Qing Dynasty". The other is the combination of heavenly stems and earthly branches, which is called heavenly stems and earthly branches calendar year, such as "Bing Yin Ji Dan" and "Gan Long Wu Bing". Official kiln porcelain is the most chronological model, but some folk kilns also write chronological models. The font of the year number of the folk kiln is scrawled, which is far less regular than that of the official kiln. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, dry branches were used in porcelain for many years.
Hall name: refers to the hall number engraved, printed and written on private porcelain. The contents include hall name, Zhai name, Xuan name, house name, hall name, building name, pavilion name and so on. The names of temples have existed since the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, such as "Zishutang" and "Dongshutang", which were popular in the late Ming Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, Yue was popular in all dynasties, especially Kangxi, such as Zhonghetang, Shendetang, Zhuocunzhai and Fuxiangxuan.
Personal name: refers to the name or alias engraved, printed and written on craftsmen or private fixed-firing ceramics. For example, "Shi Yuan's legacy" on the celadon of Yue kiln in the Three Kingdoms period, "Jia Zheng's small mouth is the best in the world" in Changsha kiln in the Tang Dynasty, and "Zhang Jiazao" porcelain pillow in Cizhou kiln in the Song Dynasty. It is common in Ming and Qing Dynasties, such as "Made by Chen Shougui", "Made by Mi Shi in the first year of the Apocalypse" and "Collected by the Master of Spring".
Auspicious words: refers to auspicious words engraved, printed and written on ceramics to express praise and blessing. From the late Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, it was the most popular, such as Wan Fu Xiutong, Prosperity, Peace in the World, Fu Shou Kang Ning and so on. There is only one word, such as "Fu" and "Shou".
Pattern style: refers to auspicious pattern symbols carved, printed and painted on ceramics, also known as "logo style". Most of the patterns are used in folk kilns. The most popular in Ming and Qing dynasties, such as Eight Diagrams, Taiji, Babel, Sea, Rabbit, Pisces, Ganoderma lucidum, etc.
Other special funds: Some funds cannot be classified into one category, such as "tea", "wine" and "lang", which are collectively referred to as other special funds.
The Origin and Development of Monetary Knowledge
As early as Neolithic pottery, some carved symbols have been found. For example, 270 carved symbols were found on pottery unearthed from Yangshao cultural sites such as Anbanpo in Xi 'an and Jiangzhai in Lintong. In addition, many inscriptions have been found in Longshan culture in Shandong and pottery unearthed in Maqiao, Shanghai and Liangzhu, Zhejiang. Painted symbols were also found on pottery unearthed in Ledu, Qinghai and Banshan, Gansu. These symbols of carving or painting are the earliest embryonic form of writing in China and the origin of China's ceramic brushwork. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, most of the lettering on tiles and pottery was numbered, and a few were named. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, inscriptions and characters on bricks and pottery were everywhere and gradually increased. The characters of pottery bricks in Qin and Han dynasties are very rich, and the contents involved are wider than before. Most of the words on pottery reflect the situation of pottery handicraft industry, such as the number or mark (one, two, three, etc.) of utensils. ), official signature of pottery handicraft industry (left, right, Dashui, Beisi, etc. ), workshop name (Anlu Pavilion, Quercus Pavilion, Du Pavilion, etc. ) and the name of the Potter (Yiqu, Gang, Cheng, Cang, etc. ). There are also place names (Yiyang, Xincheng, Lantian, etc. ), the names of all the main objects (North Park Lushi, Xia Jia Wang Shi, etc. ), object names (palace stables, large stables, Lishan Palace, etc. ), etc. There are also some auspicious words (Long live the Millennium, Changle will live longer and prosper, etc. ) has begun to appear in Wadang Heshun. At present, the earliest inscription on porcelain is a celadon unearthed in Yinxian County, Zhejiang Province, with the word "Wang Zun" engraved on the bottom. Porcelain with chronological inscriptions was first seen in the Three Kingdoms period. For example, a celadon tiger unearthed from Zhao Shigang's tomb in Nanjing bears the inscription "Yuan, a master of Shangyu in the 14th year of Hong Niao (25 1)", which includes not only the chronology, but also the burning place, craftsman's name and so on. A celadon granary unearthed from the ancient tomb in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, has the inscription on the front of the turtle tag "When Yong 'an was three years old (260 years), it was rich and foreign (auspicious), suitable for public officials and officials, with many descendants, long life, and no English (disaster) in a thousand years", including the date and blessing. A bear-shaped oil lamp with the inscription "May of the first year of Ganlu (265)" was also unearthed from Wu Tomb in Qingliangshan, Nanjing. These are three rare objects with dating models, which provide a standard for us to correctly determine the age. Its brushwork * * * features: underglaze color carving, and the font is close to cursive.
A celadon flat pot fired in the Western Jin Dynasty, unearthed in many places, has a strange shape, a short neck, a flat belly and a wide bottom. It was found that the inscriptions "One is the first aunt" and "Purple (this) is the symbol that Fan Xiu can use in Shangyu in Huiji" were engraved on the bottom of some utensils, which made us know that this kind of celadon flat pot was then. There is a kind of poppy recorded in the literature of Han Dynasty. Yan Han Shi Gu Zhu: "〓〓〓, long-necked poppy also". But what is poppy? It has long been unknown. 1972 A celadon long-necked chicken pot was unearthed from the golden tomb of Nanjing Chemical Fiber Factory. The words "the owner's surname is Huang" were engraved on the bottom of the pot, which made us know the name of the object and the owner's name. It turns out that this long-necked pot named "Merchant" is consistent with the literature.
In the Tang Dynasty, the description of ceramic brushwork was still the main style, but there were also colored inscriptions under the glaze. Judging from the kiln mouth, most of the scribes are Yue kiln, and most of the markers are Changsha kiln. Its content includes not only the date, name and place of origin, but also the inscription with the nature of commodity advertisement. Most of the fonts are cursive, and regular script is rare. The scribing and writing parts are not fixed.
A celadon pot of Yue kiln collected by Shanghai Museum has three lines written on its belly: "In the seventh year of Huichang, March 14th of the first year of Dazhong (847), it was changed to an ear for remembering the past". The inscription on this article records the change of the year number at that time. A celadon popper from Yue Kiln unearthed in Shengxian County, Zhejiang Province, with the words "This popper was made in 1 April 944/day (8 19), with a value of 1000" written on its belly, indicates the date of manufacture, the name of the popper and its value in detail. A printed bowl unearthed in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, with the words "two years in middle and large schools" at the bottom, is a simple chronology. In addition, there is a celadon epitaph engraved with words, including date, name, deeds and so on.
In the Tang Dynasty, Changsha kiln used color to write brushstrokes, many of which were commercial advertisements. This is a great invention of Changsha Kiln, such as "the mouth of the Zheng family is the best in the world", "the mouth of the Bian family is famous in the world" and "the word is endless in the world" and so on. On the export goods, the words "Allah is supreme" are written in Arabic to meet the needs of the Arab people.
Among the famous white porcelain in the Tang Dynasty, there are products engraved with the words "Ying" and "Hanlin" or written with the words "Hanlin". "English" is the abbreviation of the imperial court "Daying" library. They are official supplies. In addition, in 1978, Qian Kuan's tomb, the father of Liao Qian, the king of Wu Yue, was discovered in Lin 'an, Zhejiang Province, and 9 pieces of white porcelain were unearthed, most of which were engraved with the words "official" or "new official" at the bottom. This batch of late Tang white porcelain is exquisite and delicate, not ordinary folk porcelain, and the meaning of the inscription clearly tells people.
There are also objects engraved with the word "official" in the celadon of the Five Dynasties Yue Kiln, such as a double bottle of Yue Kiln unearthed from the tomb of the Five Dynasties in Lin 'an, Zhejiang Province, with the word "official" engraved on its abdomen.
From the Tang Dynasty to the Northern Song Dynasty, Henan porcelain kiln produced a kind of porcelain, and the bottom of the pillow was often engraved with the inscription made by the workshop, such as a porcelain pillow collected by Shanghai Museum, and the word "Dujia Flower Pillow" was engraved on the bottom of the pillow. The words "Hua Pillow" are also engraved on the handed down products. There are far more inscriptions on porcelain in the Song Dynasty than in the previous generation, including workshop marks, craftsmen's names, production dates, Tang poetry and Song poetry, auspicious sentences, palace names and special inscriptions on palace porcelain. The general feature is that abstract characters tend to be concise, and descriptive is still the main feature, but the number of books is gradually increasing, and the printing volume is also increasing compared with the previous period.
Discrimination of porcelain money in Qing dynasty:
Kangxi style is tall and straight, and the word "water" at the bottom of the word "Kang" is generally written as "〓"; The word "〓" is meaningless. During the Republic of China, there were many imitations of Kangxi, but there were few similarities in fonts, and most of them were far apart. Kangxi enamel ware, the bottom paragraph should be made of "Kangxi Imperial System", such as the six-character book is a fake.
Yongzheng's style seems to be written by one person, so it has its own characteristics, which can't be imitated by previous dynasties. There are many imitations of Yongzheng in Daoguang, Xianfeng and the Republic of China, but the fonts are large and the strokes are soft and light, which can be distinguished.
Gan Long's calligraphy is mainly seal script, and the word "Gan" is generally written in the shape of "〓", but some people are slightly different from it, so we can't generalize the identification. Imitation of later generations, when Guangxu, the font was thick; In the Republic of China, it was weak.
There is also a kind of post-payment, so we should also pay attention to it. There are two main methods: (1) engraving rare year numbers on old or new vessels, that is, times when there is little or no Chinese style in existing ceramics, such as "Shao Xi" in the Song Dynasty and "Hongwu" in the Ming Dynasty, which cannot be compared. (2) Cut off the old model and embed it in the bottom of the fake. It was the most popular in the Republic of China, so we should pay attention to the abnormal traces of fetal glaze at the bottom of the circle foot when identifying it.
Distinguish between materials:
Look at the color: porcelain is generally made of porcelain clay and graded. Porcelain clay is white after high temperature reduction sintering. The higher the sintering temperature, the higher the whiteness. The whiter the firing whiteness, the more expensive the porcelain clay, and the higher the firing cost. The general firing temperature of porcelain is usually above 1260℃.
Pottery is made of clay, which has a high iron content. Oxidation fired works are usually beige, and reduction fired works are usually dark, depending on the iron content, usually khaki to dark brown.
Listen to the sound: if you tap the work, if you make a clear and loud sound, the firing temperature will be higher, the degree of porcelain will be better, and the quality of the work will be better.
Identification of molding method:
A work may be completed by different molding methods, which molding method is closely related to the production cost. The following are the common molding methods of pottery making and how to judge them.
Rotating ring molding method: this molding method uses molds, so the dimensions of finished products are almost the same. Because it is made by a cup spinner, most ceramics are cups, bowls, plates and the like.
Grouting molding method: this molding method uses gypsum mold, so the production speed is fast and the finished product size is consistent. Ceramic works that cannot be molded by rotary crusher must be molded by gypsum, and most of them will be used to make vases, animals, figures and other shapes.
Molding: Usually, this molding method will be applied to the rough molding of the work, and then the surface of the whole work will be treated, and the surface of the finished product can be found to be uneven by pressing the soil from the inside.
Hand-pull ring molding method: most vases will use this molding method, the biggest difference is that most of them are inside the works, leaving hand-pull ring patterns or repair marks.
Pottery board molding method: The works made by this molding method usually have planes and sections, and most of them are square or rectangular.
Hand-kneading method: the hand-kneading pot will be made by hand-kneading method, completely made by hand and using tools. Authors can change freely when making them, so there will be no two identical works.
Clay strip molding method: With this molding method, the shapes can be varied, and the products made are usually practical, awesome and slow to take effect.
Hand-squeezed ring molding method: This molding method is usually used for large pottery works. It is generally recognized that this method can be squeezed by hand from the outside or from the inside, and there will be traces of knocking.
Distinguish the firing method according to the color of the ring body of the work;
Reduction sintering: general porcelain clay is white after high temperature reduction sintering. After reduction firing, clay will appear dark because of its high iron content. Depending on the iron content, the color of a bad body is usually khaki to dark brown.
Oxidation sintering: porcelain clay is grayish white after oxidation sintering. The color of the embryo is usually beige in the works fired by clay oxidation.
Identification of firing method from glaze color of works;
Glaze colors that need reduction firing: copper red, celadon and Jun kiln.
The glaze color of oxidation firing is mostly: crystalline glaze.
Other glaze colors can be sintered by reduction or oxidation.
The use of pigments for firing is not within the above range.