Most of the antique porcelain marks or pottery marks that the beginning collector will encounter on ancient Chinese ceramics are originating in the Ming or Qing dynasty or is from the republic period. Few of us will ever be able to lay hands on marked porcelain of the Song or even the Yuan dynasty.
Unlike the factory marks of European porcelain makers Chinese porcelain and pottery marks relatively seldom provide the name of the maker. Yes, there do exist antiques with so-called shop or factory marks, but these represent only a very small number among all the marks.
One of the most common antique marks found on Chinese ceramics throughout the ages is the reign or period mark (Jinian Mark). Antique pottery marks of this type are known to have existed on ancient pottery as early as the Qin and Han dynasties (see China history timeline), while the earliest known on newer ceramics are found on items from the Three Kingdoms period (3rd century).
Some antique porcelain and pottery marks contain dates of the Chinese 60 year cyclic calendar, but these are very rare. More often than not they show the emperor's reign title (period name). During the Kangxi reign pictorial marks became popular, symbol marks and double circles were especially frequent. These had already existed earlier, but only in a limited manner. Otherwise, the majority of antique porcelain marks consisted of of handwritten characters.
Character marks and even seal marks were usually handwritten or hand-painted individually. Only in the later Qing dynasty (19th century) stamped seal marks started to appear more frequently.
The imperial marks used during the Qianlong reign, for example, were written by hand in archaic "seal-style" characters with or without a hand-painted frame depicting the square seal edge. This is exactly the same way seal characters are/were written before carving or engraving the characters in a seal.
Needless to say that the ancient characters used in such seal type porcelain marks are not the normal characters used in everyday writing of the Chinese language. This ancient character type is mainly used with seals (even today) and is more difficult to read, even for a Chinese. It takes some practice to recognize this type of characters in porcelain marks.
Official (imperial) kilns:
Basically, the number of types of antique porcelain marks used for ceramics manufactured in the official kilns during each reign period is limited. These kilns operated under the supervision of court officials and everything, including the decoration, was strictly regulated. The usage of marks on these was also restricted by the court, and this in turn did not allow for the multitude of marks used by private kilns (Minyao). Potter's marks were very rare on ceramics, but sometimes the mark of the official assigned by the court as kiln overseer would be used. In the imperial kilns marks of individual potters were virtually non-existent until the Qianlong reign, when the office of the overseer was abolished.
Private kilns:
The many types of antiques porcelain marks from private kilns show that private kilns were generally more open to free expression. Their content shows more diverse information or traditional symbolic meanings inherent to Chinese culture:
Apart from the marks containing the reign name, there is a wealth of other marks with content that cannot be used for dating purposes. For example, the name of the shop or manufactory given is not useful in any way for dating Chinese ceramics. Or, a certain type of mark from the the Ming and especially the Qing dynasty is frequently found on porcelain made to order for officials or persons of high rank.
Some antique porcelain marks identify the name of the buyer (or recipient), or did contain a dedication for the recipient when an item was a gift. However, all these cannot be used for dating ceramics.
Frequently auspicuous characters, words or symbols, and a wide variety of other content meaningful in the context of Chinese culture was integrated in marks.
Quite clearly, the purpose of the antique porcelain marks and their diverse usage was not in any manner similar to usage in Europe.
Towards the end of the Qing dynasty and during the republic period ceramics were also increasingly signed or marked by the artists decorating these.
Examples are Wang Bing Rong, a well-known potter of the 19th century, or the famous "Eight Friends of Zhushan" a group that was active from the late Qing dynasty until far into the 20th century, just to mention a few were signing their work. A transition from a mere kiln artisan to an artist was in the making.
Right image: Tongzhi (1862-1874) period bowl with lid. Both are decorated with pictures and verses at the outside. The bowl shows the year according to the year using the Chinese 60 year cyclic year. See dated porcelain. Both bowl and lid have artist and reign marks.
Export porcelain:
The majority of the porcelain made specifically for export did not have any marks. Ceramics with marks were often not made specifically for export but were added to a shipping batch anyway. Systematic marking of export porcelain did not begin before the late 19th century. In the 1890s porcelain was marked with "China" for the first time, due to a new import regulation of the United States requiring that the country of origin had to be stated on imported items.
Antique Porcelain Marks and Pottery Marks, Signed Porcelain
Chinese antique porcelain marks were either hand-painted or written, impressed, stamped with a different color, or incised (scratched). When we talk of a "seal mark" we may mean any of the following types.
Hand-written (painted) in archaic characters, as used in seals
Stamped (often in red) with seal ink
Seal impressions (indented mark impression with base and mark the same color)
Seal impressions (same as above, but seal/characters are elevated, protruding from level base. (How did they make these?)
The following two types of antique markings are NOT manufacturing marks: Black, handwritten text found on the unglazed bottom of some older ceramics.
Found in early ceramics since the Song dynasty, some are records of purchase, etc.
Burial items - may contain the date and name of the deceased, also written with a brush in black.
Some plates and bowls have markings that were made by drilling many small holes to form a single character or symbol, mostly in the bottom (either on the underside or top inside). These are not porcelain marks, these markings just served to recoginize ownership of the concerned item(s) on occasions when communal use of plates or bowls was required. They are mostly found on simpler plates and bowls only.
Clearly visible drilled character designating ownership.
This cannot be emphasized enough:
Don't get fixated on the antique porcelain marks when it comes to Chinese porcelain. Unlike with European porcelain, dating Chinese porcelain based on marks properly is often difficult and outright misleading. To summarize the issue, a lot of China porcelain was never marked in the first place. But of those ancient ceramics that have marks, these marks often do not show the actual period of manufacturing, but rather that of an earlier reign.
Probably the best example for this is the porcelain made during the late Qing dynasty. In the Guangxu period huge amounts of porcelain China were produced, and many of these bear dfferent Kangxi reign marks. In addition to this there are Qing dynasty marks that appear both in the early days of the dynasty and again toward its end, but not in between. Many porcelain pieces produced in the early republic period bear a Qianlong reign mark.
Antique porcelain marks should be one of the last things looked at when trying to identify the age or authenticity of Chinese ceramics. Too often they do not indicate the actual period of manufacture and can only be a part of the overall evaluation. Only a novice will try to find information on a Chinese porcelain item based on the mark.
This said, for the serious collector or dealer of China porcelain a good reference source of marks is an indispensable requirement for identifying porcelain. If you read Chinese, a Chinese language book containing photographs of over 1500 marks from the Ming dynasty to the republican period can be purchased online and is highly recommended.
Do you have any porcelain related queries or interesting stories? Need to identify an oriental porcelain item?
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Character marks and even seal marks were usually handwritten or hand-painted individually. Only in the later Qing dynasty (19th century) stamped seal marks started to appear more frequently. 
