Collecting Antique Chinese Porcelain

This site provides an introduction to collecting antique Chinese porcelain and ceramics. It also contains useful information and tips for collecting Chinese antiques in general.

Establishing a collection of Chinese porcelain requires not only antiques related knowledge, it makes it also necessary to learn a lot of peripheral things as, for example, the ability to recognize fakes. This is especially true due to widespread faking of Chinese antiques. This site provides basic information on genuine and fake ceramic antiques from China. It should enable the prospective collector to make more informed decisions in view to Chinese antiques.

Budai - the laughing Buddha

Actually, the better we understand the issues involved the more we realize how much more knowledge antique Chinese porcelain requires.

Experienced collectors of Chinese ceramics are often specialized in the ceramics of a limited number of dynasties, or to certain types. Due to the vast space and time in which Chinese ceramics were produced, there is no expert who knows all about Chinese porcelain.

These pages provide tips and information for the beginning collector of antique porcelain made in China in the distant past. They also provide collectors with some information regarding the identification of Chinese characters found in antique porcelain marks.

Today authenticity and dating problems associated with Chinese ceramics are more acute than ever. This is not only valid for the new collector, even long-term experienced collectors and dealers buying or selling porcelain and pottery from China require knowledge not only for dating or identifying authentic antiques, some knowledge regarding to fakes is also important. This site provides information for both, new and the experienced collectors.
Some light will also be shed on Chinese commercial practices in comparison to western purchasing attitudes, and why fakes are proliferating.

First things first:

What do we define as 'antique' Chinese porcelain?

This site concerns only 'antique' porcelain. Vintage or other 20th century items are not included. Our definition of antique Chinese porcelain follows to some extent customary practice here, where we live:
(1) An antique must show porcelain age signs.
(2) It must originate either in the early republic, Qing or Ming dynasties, or even earlier.

The question is what is considered "early republic" period? We usually consider anything made after the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) during the 1910s or 20s as early republic, and it ends in the early 1930s. Anything produced later might be qualified as "vintage". During the early republic period many styles and techniques employed were still congruent with those of the Qing dynasty.
The early 20th century is the time when the classic Chinese production and decoration techniques began to change and new influences from abroad started to enter these.

The content of this site concerns only hand-painted porcelain. Printed porcelain or transfer wares are not included. Please be aware that some later polychrome wares can contain both, that is some were partially transfer printed and then colors added by hand-painting.

Chinese Porcelain Plate

Range of this site

As mentioned above this site concerns primarily antique porcelain. The information you find here is neither related to vintage nor more recent Chinese porcelain.
All information relates to antiques from imperial times up to around the early 1930s). This is also valid for marks, etc.

This site follows the Chinese habit of classifying antique porcelain according to the type or style of the decoration - as the last dynasty ended the old porcelain decoration methods continued to be used for a considerable time.

Antique Chinese porcelain made during the early republic period frequently shows similar traits as that made during imperial times. This is the main reason that early republic items are classified as antiques, in addition to their age.

Peranakan porcelain

Differences between Chinese porcelain and other Chinese ceramics

It can be a bit difficult to understand the difference between porcelain and other ceramics in the case of Chinese ceramics. This is especially the case in the country and language where porcelain was first produced. Chinese collectors frequently all types of glazed ceramics are called "porcelain" by Chinese collectors, even when they would be classified as something else abroad.

The Chinese language and culture usually differentiates only between porcelain and earthenware. Stoneware, for example, is a concept introduced only in more recent times from abroad. Its concept is hardly known in China. Originally, there did not even exist a character for this type of ware in the Chinese language. Thus, more often than not what is called 'stoneware' in the west is just called 'porcelain' in Chinese.

Click here to see a definition.

Marks Identification

Don't try identifying antique Chinese porcelain via the mark!
If you are new to Chinese antiques and are here to identify some items via their marks, then do yourself a favour and read the mark comparison page first. Marks on antique Chinese porcelain served a completely different purpose than the marks of Europe. They were not used as trademarks or logos which would allow identification of the manufacturer or age, normally.

Therefore, it is generally futile trying to date or find the source of an item via the mark. This would only be possible with non-antique Chinese porcelain made later in the 20th century, or with Qianjiang porcelain, a type that was sometimes signed by porcelain painters, but which was made only from the later part of the 19th century.

Age and dating methods

The western method of dating antique Chinese porcelain by centuries has been adopted here, but it has some disadvantages when attributing age to Chinese antiques. Here, for the sake of simplicity, the periods or eras mentioned in this site for ceramic age follow mostly the imperial or reign year method. The single periods of these are given in the tables of the Ming and Qing emperor, linked on each page.

(Please see the navigation menu on the left for Chinese dating.)

Chinese porcelain - an overview

Production of Chinese Porcelain was always influenced by China's economy and the trends of overseas markets, respectively.

During the Song, Yuan and early Ming dynasties (10th - 16th centuries) much if not most of porcelain production was export oriented. But, domestically used porcelain was basically the same as that which was exported. Only from the 16th century, in the late Ming dynasty, some porcelain started to be designed and produced specifically for overseas markets. Then, in the Qing dynasty some Chinese porcelain styles and types were exclusively made for export and were not used in China itself.
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For any unknown terms, please refer to the Glossaries of antique Chinese porcelain terms.

Ancient China Trade	Porcelain Making in Pictures	Identification
Imperial Quality Porcelain	Marks	Scientific Authentication

Home » Chinese Porcelain

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