Brief combing of the microscopic characteristics of porcelain (6) - characteristics of the Ming Dynasty

As dynasties moved further and further back, microscopic aging features became less and less pronounced, and the degree of erosion of artifacts by excavated traces was significantly less than that of artifacts that were older. But as long as you follow the original method and observe carefully, you can always find clues and clues.

Ming Dynasty porcelain, which has appeared in the folk, basically does not exceed the traditional understanding, in addition to the type, ornamentation, and quantity, which has increased than the traditional understanding, especially the ornamentation.

In the field of folk collection, the Ming Dynasty porcelain pattern renovation is more, mainly in the Xuande and Chenghua dynasties, especially the thin tire porcelain of Chenghua, and a small number of porcelain of the early Ming Dynasty.

The living room of one of my teachers hangs a large porcelain plate of Hongwu blue and white with a diameter of one meter. Some yuanqinghua also reach this size, but it is really not much. The reason for the examination of its burning is mainly the export of porcelain, because Arabs like to sit around and eat on large plates such as pilaf and lamb. There was also a period of time when people pursued Jianwen porcelain, because Emperor Jianwen ruled for a short time and had few utensils, and those who remained were even rarer. However, the blue and white porcelain of the early Ming Dynasty, perhaps due to the war, was suddenly gray and abrupt, and it was not until Yongxuan that it began to resume the use of Su materials. The age of Yongxuan blue and white porcelain is too close, and all the characteristics are not obvious. Some people rely on distinguishing the hairstyle of the dragon in the dragon pattern to break the generation, I think the insight is very novel, but can it be ironclad evidence? Once it is determined that it is Yongxuan, the author mainly judges the generation according to the knowledge of the items on the utensils, if there is no knowledge, it is not harmful to be classified into the "Yongxuan" device.

Ming Dynasty porcelain, and new imitations are not easy to distinguish the place is that some utensils unearthed and aging traces are heavy, and some utensils unearthed and aging traces are very rare, it is difficult to find, so it is difficult to summarize a certain law. This requires the appraiser to be particularly careful to be good at finding clues. Roughly from the bubble point of view, in the Ming Dynasty, the bubble is basically impossible to break completely, unless the use of many times repeatedly soaked in warm water, and then exposed to the sun and other bad damage of the acquired treatment methods, whether it can get fully broken, the author also doubts, but it is inevitable to break part of it. It's just that this method makes a bubble, and there will be no environmental pollutants in the eyes of the bubbles. However, the new porcelain relies on cleaning and soaking in the sun and rain in the short term, and the bubble will not break. Coupled with the excavation traces, it is not difficult to distinguish between the old and the new, but it needs to be taken care of by the collector, and it takes half a year to a year. This is a Qing Dynasty porcelain plate that the author took to do experiments, there was no obvious bubble break before cleaning, and after cleaning once, more than half of the bubbles burst:

Here are some macro and microscopic traces:

(1) Painted bird head, macroscopic bubble hole:

Brief combing of the microscopic characteristics of porcelain (6) - characteristics of the Ming Dynasty

(2) Microscopic bubble breaking eye:

Qing Dynasty porcelain Cracking after washing and soaking 1 microscopic

Qing Dynasty porcelain Cracking after washing and soaking 2 Microscopic

(3) When this artifact first came out, no one dared to recognize it, the author saw that there was a trace of erosion by the excavated environment on the tail feathers of the bird, and with the recognition, painting and color materials, it was confirmed that it was an old object:

Organic erosion marks on bird feathers macroscopic

Organic erosion marks on bird feathers microscopic

Here are some of the features of artifacts from the Ming Dynasty:

1. Yongle depicts the golden Fahua color porcelain cup:

"Yongle New Year" multicolored floral teacup side

(1) Bottom model: Su material blue flower

(2) Bubble breaking eyes and environmental erosion Microscopic

(3) Soil Qin at the place where the bubble is broken:

(4) Glaze: environmental erosion and growth of crystals

2. Xuande ruby red glaze three-fish pattern goblet:

(1) The lamp grass pattern on the macroscopic visible mouth edge is a must-see feature of traditional cultural appraisal:

(2) Traditional characteristics of Xuande instrument: orange peel pattern. Many utensils of the Ming and Qing dynasties have orange peel patterns, not only Xuande. There are also those without orange peel stripes. The orange peel pattern is a phenomenon of glaze wrinkles, which is related to the glaze recipe. Another feature that can often be used to identify old porcelain is the slowly concave folds of the bottom tire, like a faint ripple caused by a breeze blowing across the water (it is difficult to reflect in pictures, easy to know by touch). This is caused by the inconsistency of the proportion of tire glaze expansion and contraction after cooling, which has been caused by years and months. The new device to imitate this kind of texture, can only move the knife when making tires, will not be as natural and shallow as the old, and I have not seen such features at present.

Orange peel pattern + a yellow water spot + bubble eye

Another orange peel pattern on Xuande blue and white porcelain:

Folds similar to water waves are visible in the upper right corner of the image below:

Folds resembling water waves are visible in the upper right corner of the reflection

(3) Bottom foot + bottom model: The blue and white model on the bottom foot is written for Su material, and there are rust spots sinking, as well as water soak marks and waterlines, and white bones do not collapse. The bottom section can be conditionally identified as handwriting, see the author's article for details: Qing Dynasty Porcelain Science Appraisal: Forensic Handwriting Identification - Applied to the Bottom Of Porcelain https://www.toutiao.com/article/7018732427266867749/

Bottom foot

(4) Macroscopic visible bubble breakage and stinky dry black:

(5) On the foot of the cup, the organic corrosion marks integrated with the glaze cannot be cleaned:

(6) Another piece of Xuande Yellow Ground Blue and White Dragon Pattern Celestial Ball Bottle of Blue and White Rust Microscopic + Bottom Foot, Glazed Organic Matter Corrosion Marks:

Crystals on rust spots of sushi blue flowers

Organic corrosion marks on the bottom foot

On the glaze, organic matter corrosion infiltration marks

3. Hongzhi green glazed dragon pattern porcelain plate:

front

(1) The fluorescence effect + clam light presented by the environmental erosion at the center of the side light (not due to the pulp wrapping caused by long-term play, but the long-term effect of the slurry layer formed by the impregnated dye that cannot be washed away when unearthed):

Disc center side light Encapsulated fluorescence

Pan center side light Wrapped clam light

(2) Microscopic: the paste layer forms a white frost, almost completely covering the glaze of the utensils:

Dirt marks on the white frost of the pulp:

(3) Microscopic: deep into the glaze of the black millimeter:

4. Several pieces of chenghua thin tire utensils: The thin tires of the Chenghua dynasty are very numerous, and most of them have different shapes and ornaments. Often a certain type of ornament appears about 20-30 at a time, and then never see this ornament type of thing, even if there are similarities, there are differences. It is speculated that when it was fired, it was fired according to the purpose, and the duplicate pattern was no longer used. Only the chicken bowl cup is the same, and many chicken bowl cups have the same decoration. Of course, there are also varieties of chicken bowl cups that refresh the traditional understanding, such as purple and colorful, depicted gold, fluorescent color. Chicken bowl cups have complete sets of tea sets, including chicken bowl pots. Due to the large number of modern imitations, careful identification is required. In addition, the Yongzheng Dynasty imitation chicken bowl cup is lighter in color, the ornamentation is more elegant, and the bottom model is also an obvious Qing Dynasty style, which is easy to distinguish.

The firing process of Chenghua thin tire device has never been seen before the ancients, and the thinnest tire glaze is combined with only one millimeter, and the light transmission can be seen on both sides of the ornament.

Contemporary imitations do not dare to work thin tire porcelain, and the imitations of Chenghua Dynasty are often multicolored and doucai porcelain with medium and thick tires.

The saying that "there is no great instrument in chenghua" is not valid from common sense. Any porcelain fired in a dynasty will have practical large pieces of utensils, otherwise how to hold rice, wine, tea leaves and medicines?

However, there are not many large vessels collected by the Chenghua Dynasty, and the author has seen a pair of large pots of Doucai porcelain.

(1) The following is a thin tire tea cup with chemical yellow ink color, which can penetrate both sides under natural light:

Diameter 12 cm, mass less than 60 g, thickness 1 mm, hands as light as an eggshell, hard and hard to break:

(2) The widest diameter of the thin tire porcelain plate seen by the author: the following depiction of gold multicolored dragon pattern plate: about 21 cm in diameter, only 490 grams, while another piece of Hongzhi green glaze diameter of 22 cm, nearly 800 grams, simply measuring thickness, visual measurement is 2 mm, the feel is only in fullness, there is a difference of a few tenths of a millimeter:

Blue and yellow depicts a gold multicolored dragon pattern floral plate

Diameter 21.5 cm

Thickness 2 mm

Diameter 22.5 cm

Microscopic bubble breaking and soil Qin:

Micro organic contamination:

Bone not collapsed: used to support the carcass:

Orange peel pattern on the base:

(3) Another piece of thin tire porcelain: red earth fluorescent asphalt powder Fahua color unicorn flower pattern bowl

(1) [Terminology] water flow marks on the body: The water vapor emitted around the porcelain gathers traces of flowing on the porcelain and cannot be cleaned.

Water flow trace microscopic:

(2) The bottom section is seriously corroded:

The corroded microscopic of the bottom: covered by a layer of silvery-white environmental objects:

Bubble Breaking Microscopy:

Macro: The old atmosphere of the bowl heart:

(4) Fluorescent color dark engraved dragon pattern chicken bowl cup:

Orange peel pattern and blue and white rust spots on the bottom model sink:

(5) Blue and white phoenix pattern thin tire cup: the pulp of the whole body unearthed, after years and months of cleaning can not go:

Local detail drawing, visible blue and white ornament is stroke filling:

Bottom: Sunken rust spots

Microscopic: Massive death bubbles:

The following is the contemporary master's thin tire porcelain, intangible cultural heritage, not seen to be able to make the old imitation of the elderly:

Light transmission effect:

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