Chapter 1653: Imitation of Antiques Becomes Popular
After Cai Ling passed away, this kiln in the Longquan area was changed to a joint venture between government and businessmen.
However, after a setback, he collapsed and retired.
However, its production style strives to be modern and different from antiques.
Since the German missionary Bende publicized the unearthed goods, outsiders came to purchase them, and the supply exceeded demand.
Liao Xianzhong, a native of Yi, was the first to plan to imitate the ancient works, which could almost be mistaken for the real ones. He was the first to imitate the ancient works in modern times.
Chen Zuohan, Li Junyi, etc. also built two kilns to make original daily necessities and imitate the ancient kilns to make utensils.
Such as stoves, bottles, basins, jars, boxes, etc., in different styles and in many varieties.
Furnaces include Li furnaces, straight tube furnaces, tripod furnaces, flat furnaces, Yi furnaces, through-core furnaces, and drum nail furnaces.
There are dragon and tiger bottles, five virtue bottles, three-tube bottles, peony bottles, celestial sphere bottles and phoenix ear bottles.
The basins include Pisces basin, plum blossom basin and chrysanthemum basin.
There are goldfish tanks and drum tanks.
The boxes include phototype ink boxes, Yunhe ink boxes, landscape ink boxes, etc.
They are all made in imitation of the two chapters.
The glaze colors include pink blue, sky blue, green, or pointillism.
However, plum green, white lake, pianwen and caviar patterns are not easy to imitate.
In particular, the fetal bones are too thick, the glaze is uneven, there are black spots in the soil, and the bottom of the feet is purple when burned, which makes the neck and back unforgettable compared to the original.
But those who choose their essence should be washed with acid to remove their new luster, or they can be mixed with pearls.
Even connoisseurs are at a loss to discern its ingenuity.
And such works can be said to have flooded the market before the Anti-Japanese War.
From this we can also see how powerful the antiquing technology was during the Republic of China period.
Although during the Republic of China, Western ceramics defeated Eastern ceramics, this was only in terms of daily-use porcelain.
Before the late Qing Dynasty, Westerners imported a large amount of daily-use porcelain from my country and basically did not deal with antiques.
But after the late Qing Dynasty, Westerners were particularly interested in Chinese antiques.
The most representative one is porcelain. After all, porcelain is not easily damaged by the erosion of time.
There is a document recording the purchase of porcelain by the British doctor Stephen Bushall.
He was sent to my country in 1868 as a doctor at the British Legation in China.
He also accepted a commission to purchase Chinese handicrafts.
The client was the now famous Victoria and Albert Museum, which was still called the South Kensington Museum at the time.
Bushauer has worked in my country for 30 years, studying Chinese culture and purchasing Chinese handicrafts during his spare time of diagnosis and treatment.
In 1882, he acquired 253 sets of Chinese handicrafts and handed them over to the museum, most of which were porcelain.
And this is not unique, it is a common phenomenon in Western countries.
Where there is demand, there is a market.
Western countries are flocking to our country's antiques, which has led to the rise of our country's antique industry, especially in the area of antique porcelain.
Among the antique porcelain technologies, the most representative one is the base bonding technology.
Now Chen Wenzhe is planting a bright yellow small bowl, which is a work that is obviously connected to the bottom.
Chen Wenzhe used to do the work of repairing porcelain, but he has mastered the art of bonding to a master level, so he understands this technology very well.
The reason why this technology was born during the Republic of China is that the bottom of porcelain is often an important basis for judging porcelain.
Most people will check the authenticity of porcelain by looking at its bottom.
The bottom-connecting technology is precisely to confuse these people who only look at the bottom of porcelain.
Generally speaking, the porcelain itself can be judged by the bottom of the porcelain based on the following three points.
For most porcelain, the surface will be covered with a layer of glaze, and the information on the porcelain body will be covered by the glaze.
There is no glaze around the base of porcelain, and the most direct information about the carcass can be obtained through the base.
The bottom of official kiln porcelain is often accompanied by a style number, such as the six characters "Ming Chenghua Year System" written on the bottom of the Chenghua Doucai Chicken Cup.
The base of folk porcelain often does not have the year mark written on it, but only a leaf or a circle.
In addition to the model number, the age of the porcelain can also be seen from the writing details.
Some of the craftsmanship details, features and traces left by hand on the bottom can also be the basis for judging the age of a piece of porcelain.
The reason why the bottom is so popular is that in addition to the fact that many people judge the porcelain itself by the bottom of the porcelain, there is another important feature: large quantity, low price and complete preservation!
The bottom of porcelain is very difficult to damage. Firstly, the bottom should be used as a support for the porcelain and should be made relatively thick;
Secondly, the bottom area is relatively small and hidden, making it less susceptible to external damage.
Therefore, in most cases, even if the porcelain is severely damaged, the bottom is often well preserved, which results in the large quantity and low price of ancient porcelain with its bottom intact.
Today in Jingzhen’s antique market, you can often see a large number of porcelain bowl bottoms from the Song Dynasty, Ming and Qing Dynasties.
The bottoms of these bowls are polished and used as lids or coasters, and are sold to people interested in ancient porcelain at low prices.
Although picking up the bottom is a good business, there are two major difficulties.
First of all, porcelain has great shrinkage during firing, so it is very difficult to fire a bowl body that can perfectly match the bottom of the bowl;
Secondly, the bottom of the connection must be so that no one can see the gap.
The above difficulties will scare ordinary people away, but they will not stop the masters of counterfeiting.
Their process of attaching the bottom is roughly like this. First, they imitate several complete pieces of porcelain, choose the most suitable one, cut off the bottom, and smooth the inner wall of the cut.
After that, the corresponding edges of the old bottom were smoothed to fit the incisions, and then they were stuffed into the bottom of the porcelain and glued in place so that they fit tightly without leaving any traces.
Although the description is simple in words, it is quite a test for the opponent's skill.
The bottom is just the tip of the iceberg of antique porcelain. Antique porcelain was very prosperous during the Republic of China.
Although this is not a very glorious thing, many porcelain-making techniques are often preserved in this way, which has a positive effect on Jingzhen's handicraft industry.
Even so, the Republic of China period was the lowest period in the development history of my country's ceramic production.
During the development of my country's ceramic industry in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, there was a process of recovery, development, prosperity and decline.
However, during the Republic of China, the entire ceramic industry had been in a sluggish state, and porcelain production had shown an overall decline.
In order to imitate the feudal dynasty, Yuan Datou established an imperial kiln factory in Jingzhen and sent Guo Baochang to supervise the kiln affairs. The center of the ceramics industry remained in Jingzhen.
To a certain extent, these porcelains maintain the exquisiteness and delicacy of traditional official kiln porcelain.
However, the workmanship is generally inferior, and the level of exquisiteness is not even as good as that of late Qing porcelain whose craftsmanship has declined.
However, due to the purchase of antiques by foreigners, imitation of antiques became popular during the Republic of China.
But blue and white, five colors, and pastels are the mainstream.
One reason is that after the official kilns declined, the kiln workers dispersed to the private sector.
Imperial utensils that were not allowed to be made by the private sector in the past are now made casually.
Therefore, imitating official kiln styles is no longer blocked;
The second is driven by interests. From the Three Kingdoms and Jin Dynasty to the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, there are no imitations, and the number is extremely large.