Reign marks are usually four or six characters in length and can be found on the base or the side of an item.
Chinese porcelain marks blue square.
Flower balls on c19th and c20th chinese porcelain 花球 huā qiú february 9 2019.
In general the marks will be red or blue and hand painted or stamped.
The most common marks on porcelain tend to be written in underglaze blue within a double circle.
The marks listed below are grouped as far as was possible in a logical order with similar signs graphics shapes etc grouped together.
All new marks are in the proper alphabetical order but the text will be red and in italics for a short time so as to highlight the newly added marks.
Reign marks can be found on chinese ceramics mainly from the early ming dynasty 15 th century through to the qing dynasty 1644.
Chinese porcelain reign marks identification.
There are about 200 new marks other chinese porcelain reports on this blog.
Mark from a square flask with 4 landscapes by wang yeting.
A useful reference book is the handbook of marks on chinese ceramics gerald davison london 1994.
The dates are almost exclusively given as chinese cyclical dates which are repeated in 60th year cycles without a reference to the period of the reigning emperor it is thus possible to by mistake date a piece 60 years back or forward in time.
Reign marks should be studied alongside the many different variations of hallmarks auspicious marks potters marks and symbols that you find on the bases of chinese porcelain throughout the ages.
Reign marks can play a pivotal role in helping to identify the period in which chinese artefacts were created.
In the world of ming and qing dynasty art knowing how to look at a reign mark is a key asset for any collector specialist or enthusiast to correctly identify the date and the value of a piece of chinese porcelain.
Consider the color of the marks and how they were applied to the porcelain piece.
Re shen name precious treasure.
If you see red marks the piece was likely created in the mid 19th century while pieces with blue marks were likely made later.
This is a list of chinese porcelain pieces that have been decorated in such a way that the decoration includes a date.
There was a brief time during the kangxi period in 1667 when the emperor issued an edict forbidding the use of his reign mark on porcelain in case the ceramics were smashed and discarded.
Some marks look like a circle square bird or animal shape etc.
Marks with letters are listed in alphabetical order.
The mark first appeared in the kangxi period and became popular in the late qing to the early republic period 1900 1950.