Chapter 1548 The value of porcelain lies in the clay
Nowadays, when appraising porcelain, especially porcelain from the early Ming Dynasty, any porcelain bearing the Hongwu style must be analyzed in combination with glaze, decoration and other aspects.
As a result, many people cannot see the last sentence, which is: "Anyone with Hongwu style recognition must be analyzed in combination with glaze, decoration and other aspects."
Until now, they are just official kiln wares without the Hongwu stamp. Whenever they appear, they are fake.
Therefore, there is a fictitious blue and white plum vase with red underglaze characters and stories "made in the Hongwu Year of the Ming Dynasty".
Besides, the market value of Hongwu porcelain is very high, so porcelain with Hongwu inscriptions written on antique porcelain is more common.
For example, the imitation "Hongwu Sixth Year" style red pine, bamboo, plum and jade ewer spring vase with glaze.
Unfortunately, such imitations are quite different from the genuine ones in terms of glaze, shape, and decoration.
Of course, we should be even more wary of the various fabrications of the Hongwu reign in other books.
There are many articles now saying that so far, no porcelain of the Hongwu era has been seen.
However, was there any money left during the Hongwu period?
In fact, there is still some, otherwise, Chen Wenzhe would not have to worry about this.
Although only the plum vase with the word "Chun Shou" written in seal script on the shoulder is found in the collection of the Dahai Museum, no official kiln vessel with the "Hongwu" chronology has been found.
However, as long as there is a mark, why can't the mark made in the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty be left?
As for whether the Hongwu official kiln has a mark, the collection circle has never stopped debating it and it has always been unresolved.
However, Chen Wenzhe knew that in a museum in Nanhe Province, there was a blue and white plum vase "made in the Hongwu Year of the Ming Dynasty".
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If it is authentic, then it must be a cultural relic preserved in the National Museum.
But unfortunately, this blue and white plum vase did not attract enough attention.
I don’t know which museum it is from, I don’t think it is authentic, or there are other reasons.
Maybe they don't have enough confidence themselves?
There is nothing we can do about it. Many collectors, especially those who have been collecting for a long time, have more or less valuable treasures at home.
For example, the Hongwu porcelain made in the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, and these are some important items such as red underglaze, blue and white underglaze red.
There are so many collectors like this, who would think that the porcelain made in the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty in their collection is genuine?
Even some items with obvious signs of aging, or simply considered genuine antiques, such as porcelain from the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, are not recognized by others.
Because some documents believe that the porcelains with inscriptions made in the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty that have been seen so far are all imitations from the Wanli period.
Since it is a replica, there must be something real that can be imitated.
A very small number of Hongwu porcelain has been circulated to this day, and only a few examples of folk kiln wares with clear dates have been found.
But it has never been confirmed by well-known ceramic experts.
Since Hongwu has established the official kiln system, there must be standards for distinguishing official kilns and private kilns.
As an official kiln, it naturally has a chronological style.
And this is also the reason why some fabricators are still making up endless stories about Hongwu porcelain.
Nowadays, there are still rumors on the market, such as Hongwu Annals red plum vase with glaze, Hongwu Annals plum vase with characters and stories, and Hongwu Annals blue and white jars with lids.
In fact, Chen Wenzhe doesn't care about these. What he cares about is these porcelains. If they are really old enough, are they Wanli imitations?
Some experts have identified the Hongwu-style porcelain discovered as imitations of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, but many people disagree.
The main thing is that these are genuine antique porcelains with the mark of the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, and the quality of the soil is very good.
Whether a piece of porcelain is good depends not only on the decoration and shape, but also on the soil.
There is no way to fake this, because good fetal soil is rare nowadays, let alone the early Ming Dynasty?
Especially in the early Ming Dynasty, the fetal soil in Zhu Yuanzhang's period was Macang soil, and it was very good Macang soil.
"Yin Liu Zhai Talks about Porcelain" says: "The value of porcelain lies in the porcelain clay."
In geological terms, it is a kind of sticky alluvial soil.
With the passage of time, the fetal soil of the Hongwu Dynasty still continued the fetal soil of the Yuan Dynasty, and a large amount of porcelain clay from Macang Mountain was used, still using the "dual formula".
As for the understanding of Macang soil, according to "Ci Jian", Macang soil was already very tense in the middle period of Chenghua and completely depleted in the late Wanli period.
Therefore, during the Wanli period, the fetal soil was not refined and had too many impurities, so it was impossible to have such good fetal soil.
Secondly, there are still some imported Su materials with high iron content in Hongwu Chaoqing material.
After firing, sometimes the blue and white flowers turn gray, the green material still sinks, the rust settles into the bones, and the unevenness is obvious.
Thirdly, the green material in the early Wanli period is Huiqing, which is blue with purple in color, rich and gorgeous;
In the middle stage, use Huiqing and Shiziqing to make the color bright and bright blue;
In the late stage, the proportion of stone green increases, and the color is blue with flashes of gray, not gray and black as shown in the picture.
Fourth, although there were frequent wars in the early Ming Dynasty, the kilns were still in full swing and did not stagnate due to this.
During this period, the imperial kilns continued to produce large quantities of blue and white porcelain for the imperial court.
Since there are official kilns and private kilns, it is not surprising that the official kiln porcelain of the "Made in the Hongwu Year of the Ming Dynasty" style appears with the Hongwu era name.
It’s just that no dated official kiln inscriptions have been found in the past. What’s particularly important is that there are no clear archaeological discoveries.
As for porcelain spread among the people, no matter how many people approve it, there will always be more people who don't approve it.
This is a typical phenomenon where literature is not first and military is not second.
In fact, through some modern scientific and technological means, combined with traditional identification methods, some things can still be determined.
For example, by combining the microscopic characteristics of artifacts with traditional identification knowledge, it is easy to obtain some clear results.
However, some current experts absolutely do not approve of some modern methods, even if they are used as reference.
In fact, they are either stupid or bad.
It is naturally impossible to admit something for the sake of personal gain.
Things like this abound.
Chen Wenzhe had heard before that someone was more serious and conducted a scientific analysis on a plum vase that was said to be a fabrication.
Of course, Chen Wenzhe does not support pure scientific identification, but he does support it based on evidence.
Let’s take the plum vase from the story of Hongwu characters as an analysis. We can see a lot of things from a micro perspective.
For example, there are obvious large, medium and small bubbles on the glaze surface of the utensils, layered on top of each other.
There are also white bubbles, as well as mesh, geometric figures, discolored bubbles, broken bubbles and death bubbles;
The bottom foot is obviously made of Ma Cang soil, which contains iron oxide green material, which shows the changing process of green, blue and brown during the oxidation-reduction reaction.
The bottom is made of soil, with an obvious elegant and natural flint red color and uneven black pits;
The glaze surface has natural oxidation marks such as unevenness, welding, wear, devitrification, and ox hair patterns, which shows that the artifact conforms to the characteristics of early Ming Dynasty artifacts.
At the very least, this should be an old thing, because new imitations cannot imitate many features of the microstructure.