Modern Chinese Ceramic Marks

Making sense of chinese reign marks.

Modern chinese ceramic marks.

Reign marks are most commonly written in vertical columns and are read from top to bottom and from right to left. This is an attempt to list modern chinese porcelain factories and their current and previous marks. A selection of the chinese ceramicists and sculptors in the modern contemporary art field are represented below. That means from approximately 1930 or earlier.

This selection of marks below contains mainly chinese porcelain marks of the ming and qing dynasties and a few republic period antique marks. It is thought that this system of reading and writing grew from ancient chinese traditions of writing on vertical strips of bamboo or bone. All four character kangxi marks without borders are from and around the guangxu 1875 1908 period when four character kaishu marks were widely used. Song marks are in a hand written form and in song s style of writing then there is ming qing republic modern and after cultural revolution style of writings etc this is a most specialized and difficult subject and no books has as far as we know dared to touch on this yet but being a true viking i ll go about doing this soon with the help of my chinese speaking friends who often can.

The only genuine four character kangxi nian zhi marks is done within a double line square border and used exclusively for palace workshop decorated wares the highest level of imperial porcelain. So far not very successful but the page is established here and hopefully i will find out a way to fill it out in time. Reign marks are usually four or six characters in length and can be found on the base or the side of an item. Chinese porcelain reign marks identification.

Jul 4 2019 explore diana syvertsen s board chinese ceramics marks on pinterest. Reign marks can also be written in a horizontal line that is read from right to left. This is a list of chinese porcelain pieces that have been decorated in such a way that the decoration includes a date. Marks listed below are from antiques that are about 80 years old or older.

Many pieces of chinese porcelain have identifying marks on the bottom of them. Reign marks can play a pivotal role in helping to identify the period in which chinese artefacts were created. See more ideas about chinese ceramics ceramics chinese. The dates are almost exclusively given as chinese cyclical dates which are repeated in 60th year cycles without a reference to the period of the reigning emperor it is thus possible to by mistake date a piece 60 years back or forward in time.

These signs will give you a clue to the true origin of your favourite find and they will give you an idea of just how much your favourite vase or plate is worth. Marks on vintage and contemporary porcelain items are not included.