Chapter 1,529 Exquisite on the outside and the same on the inside
With almost strict art standards and craftsmanship difficulties, we can strive to highly restore the exquisite charm of the imperial porcelain of the Ming Dynasty.
In this way, according to the craftsmanship of the imperial kiln factory in the Ming Dynasty, every step of the replica of the work requires excellence.
For example, there is a mark on the bottom of each Chenghua doucai cup.
The strokes are thick, the font is fat, and the softness contains strength. It is particularly round, powerful and subtle.
Just this step can stump many top antique craftsmen.
And all of this is worth it.
If we could really imitate these five cups and pour a cup of tea, the tea would be full of fragrance. It would be an extremely pleasant enjoyment, with flowers, paintings, and poems...
Unfortunately, the better something is, the more difficult it is to imitate it because there are too many technical difficulties.
Especially "fighting colors", you must know that this is a major innovation of Chenghua porcelain in Ming Dynasty.
In fact, to put it simply, doucai is a new variety of porcelain that is based on blue and white paintings with red paint, combined with underglaze blue and white and overglaze colored glazes.
That's why Doucai has the reputation of "blue and white decorated with five colors".
Among the Chenghua Doucai porcelain of the Ming Dynasty, there are two extremely important works.
They are "Chicken Tank Cup" and "Sanqiu Cup".
Among them, the number of Sanqiu cups is smaller, which can be called the best.
After the end of summer, the weather gets cooler and autumn begins to appear.
The ancients divided autumn into Mengqiu, Zhongqiu and Jiqiu, collectively known as the "three autumns".
There are countless works of art created with the theme of "Three Autumn Seasons"!
The most commendable among them is undoubtedly the Ming Cheng Hua Doucai "Sanqiu Cup".
Historically, the name of the Sanqiu Cup was not as loud as the Chicken Jar Cup of the same period, but its craftsmanship and collection value far exceeded that of the Chicken Jar Cup.
This is not unreasonable, because its shape is exquisite and unique, and its texture is smooth and crystal clear.
The color materials are carefully selected and pure, and the colors are soft and tranquil!
The painting is elegant and graceful, and its light and elegant style is unique.
Generally speaking, the Chenghua official kiln wares are of fine and pure white texture, the white glaze is as smooth as fat, the colors are soft, the brushwork is fluent, the shape is light and beautiful, and the exterior and interior are as exquisite as one.
Let’s not talk about anything else, but let’s talk about one thing, that is the “brilliant color” that cannot be imitated.
Chenghua porcelain has many varieties and rich colors.
Such as red ground with green color, red glaze with white flowers, blue and white with red color, blue and white with green color.
Strange ones include peacock green glaze blue and white, yellow glaze blue and white, blue glaze white flower, white glaze sauce flower, white glaze red, white glaze yellow, and white glaze green.
Rare ones include plain tricolor, enamel, imitation glaze, etc.
There are many colors on these colorful glazes that have never been seen before.
For example, the "Colorful Purple" on the "Sanqiu Cup" of Chenghua Doucai in the Ming Dynasty.
The wings of the Sanqiu Cup butterfly are covered with a purple glaze, which is as colored as hematite. The surface is dry and matte but very rich.
After analyzing the Chenghua doucai he had witnessed, Sun Yingzhou summarized the characteristics of the overglaze color of the Sanqiu cup and named this special color "cha purple".
Sun Yingzhou’s explanation of “poor purple” is “color defects caused by differences during firing”. To put it bluntly, it is caused by insufficiently advanced craftsmanship.
But what is unexpected is that this "flaw" in color has been praised by later generations.
The reason is that the level of craftsmanship has improved later, but it is unclear how the "cha purple" was burned back then, so it cannot be imitated.
Sun Yingzhou once pointed out: "In the lids fired during the Kang, Yong, and Qian periods of the Qing Dynasty, all other colors were imitated, except for the 'cha purple' color, which was far inferior... It can be said with certainty that any color with 'cha purple' Absolutely authentic.”
"Chai Zi" is distinguished by "Chai", and the Tibetan community later refined it into "Brilliant Purple" with "Brilliant Purple".
As for the unique "colorful purple", what exactly is it? It is as colored as red iron.
In fact, it means that the surface is dry and dull. In the past, some people did not know much about this color. Every time they cleaned it, they mistakenly thought it was dirt and scraped it, damaging the glaze.
As a special basis for identifying Chenghua Doucai, this color can often be used to make a conclusion.
All imitators are far behind.
Despite all the efforts of the Tibetan community, "Sha Zi" still cannot be imitated.
Currently on the market, we have never seen high imitations of Ming Chenghua Doucai "Sanqiu Cup".
Even if the shape, base, composition, and lines of the vessel are exactly the same, the glaze color cannot be completely restored.
Therefore, "Sha Zi" has become the anti-counterfeiting mark of the "Sanqiu Cup" made in Chenghua Doucai of Ming Dynasty.
The bright purple color of the Doucai Chicken Cup and Sanqiu Cup in Chenghua of the Ming Dynasty has not been imitated so far, because the bright purple color is actually a failed firing method.
But it is this failed color that creates the color of Chenghua Doucai. Just like the opening of porcelain, the more unexpected the characteristics are, the more difficult it is to imitate.
If these can be imitated, then the Doucai Chicken Cup can basically be imitated.
In other words, if you can imitate the Doucai Chicken Cup, you can definitely imitate the Sanqiu Cup.
Therefore, this difficulty is not difficult for Chen Wenzhe.
Because Chen Wenzhe has already studied the chicken pot cup thoroughly.
He also knew very well that as a royal utensil for the palace, the colorful purples in the doucai utensils fired at that time must be very beautiful, and it could never be a failed firing technique.
The reason why it looks dull and dull now, like dirt, is mainly because it took too long and an unknown chemical change occurred, so it turned purple.
In fact, some problems can also be seen from some Chenghua doucai porcelain that has been handed down.
The "colorful purple" on these porcelains has different expressions because it is on different devices.
It can be inferred from this that "Sha Zi" must be very different from other Chenghua doucai porcelain.
The difference in "colorful purple" on different porcelain can be shown by the Chenghua Doucai porcelain plate collected in the Wanwan Palace Museum.
This porcelain plate has dark brown material in the center of the bottom and a bright purple color.
If you have seen it, you can see even by looking at the picture that the particles are thicker, the color is dark, the material is thick, the color is obviously higher than the glaze, and there is a faint reflection.
There is also a Chenghua magpie broken flower stem cup collected by the British Museum. The purple particles are extremely fine, the color is extremely pure, slightly higher than the glaze surface, and slightly reflective.
In addition, through comparison, some high imitations can also be seen.
For example, Chen Wenzhe saw a high imitation piece at the Dahai City Collectors Association.
He didn't quite understand it at the time, but now that he thought about it, the picture of the chicken bowl cup was a bit dull, and the cup had thick walls, making it look like an imitation.
Its "violet" grains are particularly thick, especially the pattern of a butterfly.
After the butterfly is enlarged, the color is raised above the glaze
It can be seen that the colorful colors of Chenghua Doucai are not exactly the same.
Of course, this is mainly due to the different grinding thickness of mineral pigments.
Different quality and different thickness of color will cause the purple color on the fired porcelain to show differences in color thickness, color depth, reflection and other aspects.
Especially the very finely ground purple will reflect light after the porcelain is fired.
Although the reflection is weaker than other colors, it deviates from people's traditional understanding of purple, which may also be related to the firing temperature.