It’s no secret that a vase can easily cost millions, but porcelain from the Xuantong official kiln is more expensive. Why? Because there are only a few of them in the Forbidden City.
Chen Wenzhe only knows a few pieces, which are the collections hidden in the Forbidden City.
For example, the bowl with yellow ground and green color with flower and bird patterns is one of the representative ones because it is very special.
What's so special about it? It's not that it's particularly rare, but because it's one of the few official kiln wares from the Xuantong period.
This yellow-ground green-colored flower-and-bird pattern bowl was fired during the Xuantong period of the Qing Dynasty. It is 6.5cm high, 12.4cm in diameter, and 5.3cm in foot diameter.
The bowl has a straight mouth, a slightly open mouth, a deep belly, a straight upper belly, and a rounded foot.
Both the inside and outside are covered with yellow glaze and the interior is glossy.
On the yellow-glazed floor of the outer wall, two peach trees and four flying birds are painted in green.
A green ring is decorated near the edge of the mouth, and a double ring is lightly carved on the foot wall.
All the tires under the green pattern have the same carved outline as the pattern.
The outer bottom is inscribed with the six-character regular script inscription "Xuantong Year System of the Qing Dynasty" in ink on the outer bottom.
Yellow ground green color is one of the varieties of low-temperature color glaze overglaze color.
It uses yellow glaze as the ground, and uses green to paint on the dark patterns carved by the cone.
This kind of decoration method is more common on plates and bowls. If it is an official kiln vessel from other periods, it is just an ordinary item.
But just because it was fired during the Xuantong period, it is particularly rare because its firing quality is quite satisfactory and is no worse than official kiln wares from other periods.
Of course, the Xuantong period was not without good things.
For example, the yellow glaze dark cloud dragon plate with the most expensive glaze color is 4cm high, 18.7cm in diameter and 11.4cm in foot diameter.
Belonging to the old collection of the Qing Palace, this plate has an open mouth, curved walls and round feet.
The six-character regular script "Xuantong Year System of the Qing Dynasty" in blue and white script inside the foot.
The inner and outer walls of the plate are covered with yellow glaze, and the center and outer wall of the plate are darkly engraved with cloud and dragon patterns.
As a traditional decorative pattern on palace porcelain, the yellow-glazed cloud and dragon pattern has been used in various dynasties in various styles.
According to the regulations of the Qing Palace, there are strict regulations on the use of yellow-glazed bowls inside and outside, and only the emperor and empress dowager can use them.
This plate should be the royal porcelain of Emperor Xuantong Puyi in the late Qing Dynasty, so its value is obviously higher.
Chen Wenzhe also needs to make a batch of yellow-glazed porcelain like this. Although some of the ones he made before involved yellow glaze, they are definitely not classics among yellow glazes.
After all, yellow glaze is quite special. In ancient times, no one dared to use it, so naturally no one made more of it.
If you do less, your skills will not be very good, but if you are good at it, you must be the royal craftsman of the palace.
In addition to status representatives, some top craftsmen still have some good works.
For example, there are a number of wonders among porcelains, such as the five-color underglaze of Liling kiln.
This is the representative porcelain of the Xuantong period, and the Liling underglaze vase with colorful flowers and birds is one of the representative works.
This was made in 1911, the third year of Xuantong in the Qing Dynasty, with a height of 30.3cm, a diameter of 6.3cm, and a foot diameter of 6.3cm.
The bottle has a curved mouth, a slender neck, a long round belly, and a circle foot.
The bottle is covered with white glaze both inside and outside, and the carcass is light and thin.
The flower and bird patterns are painted with five colors under the glaze, and the colors are light and elegant.
The outsole is stamped with the inscription "Hu Province Porcelain Company in the third year of Xuantong Period of the Qing Dynasty" in blue and white regular script, with a green double circle on the outside.
Hu Province Porcelain Company was founded in Hu Province by Xiong Xiling in the 32nd year of Guangxu's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1906).
In the history of modern porcelain making in my country, the underglaze multicolored porcelain of the Liling kiln in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China has reached a high level in terms of production technology and decoration, and can be called a wonder in the ceramic art garden.
Also, there are only a few works from the feudal dynasty that have retained the company's money, and this is one of the wonders!
Of course, there are also some normal Xuantong porcelains, such as the large blue and white peach and bat bowl with double "xi" characters.
A large blue and white peach bat bowl with double "xi" characters, 9cm high, 21.1cm in diameter and 8.5cm in foot diameter, also belongs to the collection of the Qing Dynasty.
The mouth is slightly turned outwards, the walls are curved, and the feet are circled. Inside the feet are blue and white inscriptions "Xuantong Year of the Qing Dynasty" in six-character double-line regular script.
The outer wall of the bowl is decorated with blue and white flowers, with lotus patterns intertwined throughout, bat and peach patterns in between, and four groups of double happiness (囍) characters symmetrically written on it.
The word "Double Happiness" as a decorative pattern on porcelain appeared earlier in folk kilns.
It was occasionally found on official kiln porcelain in the early Qing Dynasty, and appeared in large numbers on official and private kiln porcelain after the mid-Qing Dynasty.
During Tongzhi's wedding, more than 6,000 pieces of porcelain with this theme were fired.
According to the Qing palace archives, this bowl was fired in the first year of Xuantong, that is, 1909.
If this piece hadn't been fired at the time when the Qing Dynasty was about to perish, it wouldn't be of much historical value.
But who made it possible for the Qing Dynasty to fall three years after it was fired?
There are still many such alternative porcelains, and the most special ones are definitely from the Xuantong period.
Can you imagine the prices of these alternative official kilns?
Take stock of those rare and expensive ceramics from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and sometimes they can really surprise you.
For example, domestic ceramics have rarely been produced since before the Ming Dynasty.
The use of regular script to inscribe the year on ceramics began to appear from the Ming Dynasty and continued until the Qing Dynasty.
After the Ming Dynasty, official kilns were generally marked with the emperor's year number as the year mark, which is also called the dynasty mark.
Among them, there were 16 emperors and 17 reign names in the Ming Dynasty. Zhengtong and Tianshun were both the reign names of Zhu Qizhen.
There were 12 emperors with 13 reign names in the Qing Dynasty. Tiancong and Chongmei were both the reign names of Huang Taiji.
However, not every year number can be found corresponding to official kiln ceramics.
For example, Jianwen in the Ming Dynasty, this is porcelain that has not left any mark due to the impact of war.
Hong Xi, who only reigned for one year, certainly didn't.
The blank period is relatively famous, and blank porcelain appeared, which is a typical representative of alternative commemorative porcelain.
The blank period was the Zhengtong, Jingtai, and Tianshun dynasties, all of which were affected by war.
During the Taichang period, this unlucky emperor only reigned for 29 days.
In the Qing Dynasty, Nurhaci, the old slave who was destined to live in the Qing Dynasty, often gnawed tree bark. His only pursuit was to be able to wear wild boar skin.
Even if he became rich later, he would definitely not have the heart to make porcelain.
As for Tiancong and Chongmei, they were planning to conquer the Central Plains at that time, so they were unable to produce official kiln ceramics in Jingzhen.
The Forbidden City was the royal palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Over the past five hundred years, countless exquisite ceramics from the Jingzhen Imperial Kiln Factory have arrived here.
The dynasties listed above either reigned for too short a time or were disrupted by war and had no control over Jingzhen, so none of them left official kiln wares with year marks.
Even if porcelain of this style is found, they are mostly fake entrustments from the Jiajing, Wanli, Tianqi and Chongzhen periods.
The Palace Museum has additionally displayed the emperors of the Qing Dynasty and their corresponding official kiln porcelain. In addition, there are also some "alternative official kilns".
Although these emperors did not reign for long, they still seized this short opportunity and laid their own unique "brand" on the top ceramics at that time.
There are very few official kiln wares of this kind in existence, so how much impact will this factor have on prices? And which ones have the potential to appreciate in value?