Antique Mark Removed from China Porcelain

Found Chinese Porcelain with an antique mark removed?

Why marks may have been removed from Chinese porcelain.

I would like to throw in three reasons for marks being found removed on Chinese porcelain.

When a purchased item has traces indicating a removed mark, the owner will usually be concerned about the reason, and authenticity of an item.

It is not always necessary to be nervous about this, sometimes there may be a perfect harmless explanation.

First, however, there is the possibility of the item being not authentic, and the mark was removed to hide this. This must be verified. After all, if you are specialized in collecting or selling Chinese antiques, you do not want to have something that is not authentic.
Samson, Paris, was known in the 19th century for making high quality copies of Chinese porcelain. And some have apparently been found with the marks removed. I have also first hand knowledge of European copies of Chinese porcelain wares being imported into China. I think nobody would really be as naive as to believe they are being sold in China as made in Europe... :-)

Once the possibility of non-Chinese imitation is excluded, we can consider other, less serious, reasons for having an antique mark removed.

I could imagine two more reasons that someone might want to remove a mark from an authentic item.(1) a wrong character in the mark (a typo); it is rare, but it happened.(2) An unlikely mark on a period item

We all know that Guangxu export porcelain had lots and lots of spurious earlier reign marks. Most of those are Kangxi, Qianlong or Tongzhi marks. And everybody knows this...But some other 19th century reign marks are occasionally also appearing. Not everybody may appreciate if a Jiaqing or Daoguang mark is on a Guangzu item and rather remove the offending mark. This, because in this case many people may tend to think that the item might be fake.

BTW, if it looks as if a mark was scratched off from atop the glaze, using a tool, then you will see the character stroke lines where the tool scratched without gloss. The glaze may still be there, just scratched. This means that the mark was applied over the glaze, originally. This could also mean that the mark was added later, and then removed by a later owner as being not authentic.

Generally said in view to its (investment) value, an item with a period mark is rated highest, next would be one with a mark that is apocryphal (non-period, usually of an earlier reign or dynasty), then an item without a mark; an item with the antique mark removed may be rated a little lower than the latter, but still has collective value, whatever the reason for the removal.

Reapplying glaze over the raw body.
You can reapply a drop of glaze over the rough area, or have a restorer do it. The result will be that the scratched or ground, rough area is almost or completely invisible.


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