Collecting Knowledge-How to Identify Celadon from Embryonic Glaze

“The sky blue and blue and so on rain, and I am waiting for you, the moon was salvaged, the end of the cloud opened, such as the world’s blue-and-white porcelain, take care of their own beauty.” This is Jay’s well-known “blue-and-white porcelain”, just a few words out of the blue-and-white porcelain that endless charm.Now collection of blue-and-white porcelain has become a major favorite in the world of collectors.The identification of blue-and-white porcelain should be done from the aspects of tire, glaze, modelling, decorative patterns, painting style, color of green materials, craft and writing style, so as to analyze and understand its time characteristics and development trend, and find out the regular things from it.If you know how to identify blue-and-white porcelain, you can get great pleasure from the collection, but also get higher economic benefits.Because of the high economic value of ancient blue-and-white porcelain, Ming-cheng-hua (1465-1488) began to imitate the former Qing Dynasty blue-and-white porcelain, until now, Jiangxi Jingdezhen is still burning a large number of antique blue-and-white porcelain.As a collector, of course, you won’t be willing to pay high prices for fake antiques.However, some antique counterfeiters are very clever, their works can often be false, which requires collectors have a certain ability to distinguish between false, now Kuaobao “collection” specially invited Professor Cheng Xiaozhong to tell the professional knowledge of blue and white porcelain, for readers to improve appreciation and the ability to distinguish false.

identification of ancient blue and white porcelain from fetus and glaze

Fetal bones, or fetal bones.The porcelain billet becomes a “tire” after being sintered at high temperature.The main components of ceramic tire are silicon oxide, alumina and a small amount of potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron and other elements.White ceramic tyre is the base of firing blue-and-white porcelain, which is usually made of porcelain stone and kaolin and fired at a high temperature above 1300 ℃.Glaze is a vitreous coating attached to the surface of a porcelain tyre.Glaze has similar physical and chemical properties to glass, which can protect and decorate porcelain tyre.The main component of glaze and porcelain tire is basically the same, but potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium and other flux content is high, make glaze juice easy to melt at high temperature, fill the pore of porcelain tire surface, appear bright and flat, as if to the porcelain put on a neat, beautiful coat.Due to the differences in the composition of the tire and glaze used for firing blue-and-white porcelain in various periods, and the differences in the techniques of repairing, digging and glazing, it is helpful to distinguish the age and authenticity of blue-and-white porcelain through the observation and analysis of the tire, glaze and making process.

Qing Hua of Tang Dynasty

The foetus quality of porcelain is relatively thick and loose, thick, the foetus color has yellow white and gray white two kinds.Because of the bleach, screening is very rough, so in the tire soil often can be found mixed with some gray, yellow or black small sand particles, ceramic tire there are more obvious small bubbles or pores.In order to cover up the deficiency of fetal color, in the objects between the tire, glaze are applied a layer of white make-up soil (also known as” tire-protecting glaze “), glaze also has gray and milky white two kinds, glaze surface often has fine ice crack.

Qing Hua in Yuan Dynasty

The porcelain kilns are concentrated in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, where there are abundant resources of high-quality porcelain clay.As early as the late Tang Dynasty, Jingdezhen porcelain workers used nearby rich kaolin to make fine-quality blue-and-white porcelain.The craftsmen of Yuan Dynasty changed to the advanced “binary formula”, that is, adding porcelain stone to kaolin, increased the content of alumina in porcelain tyre, increased the density and whiteness of porcelain tyre, and laid the foundation for the emergence of mature blue-and-white porcelain.In such a white body on the drawing of blue-and-white porcelain, more can be set off blue-and-white delicate, pure beauty.Jingdezhen Yuan blue and white porcelain glaze is also very transparent, glaze thickness uniform, strong glass texture.Glaze slightly green, appear quiet and elegant.

Qing Hua of Song Dynasty

The porcelain was more advanced than the Tang Dynasty, with fine, hard, and few pores.The fetal body is thinner than the Tang Dynasty;The foetus is white and grayish, and flint red is seen in the exposed area;The glaze layer is thin and transparent, and the glaze is blue and grey.

Qing Hua of Ming Dynasty

In general, the body of porcelain is lighter and thicker than that of the Yuan Dynasty.The quality of the fetus is relatively white and delicate (except for some rough porcelain of civilian kilns or blue-and-white porcelain of pulpy tyres).Glaze surface fat, moisten, glaze color blue.

Qing Dynasty blue and white