Guides and articles

Guides to Antique Chinese Porcelain

How to look at a piece, read its marks and place it in time, written for collectors and buyers. Start with the collector's guide, or choose a subject below.

Identify and Date

How to Identify Antique Chinese Porcelain: Age Signs and DatingHow to identify antique Chinese porcelain step by step: shape, base, glaze, colour, painting, marks and wear, and what each sign of age can tell you.
Reading the Base: Foot Rings, Clay and Glaze on Chinese PorcelainHow to read the foot ring and base of Chinese porcelain: exposed body and orange flush, kiln grit, tool marks, glaze inside the foot and what copies get wrong.
Detecting Fake Chinese PorcelainHow fakes and later copies of Chinese porcelain give themselves away: body and foot, glaze, cobalt and painting, marks, wear and artificial ageing.
Condition and Restoration on Chinese Porcelain: How to Detect Repairs Before You BuyCondition terms explained, kiln faults told from later damage, and how to find restoration on Chinese porcelain with a loupe, touch and an ultraviolet torch.
Is It a Real Ming Vase? How Collectors TellHow to tell if a Ming vase is real: the shape, the unglazed base, the blue, the mark, signs of age, and the copies you are most likely to meet.

Guides to Antique Chinese Porcelain

Identify and Date

Marks

Wares

Collecting

Ming porcelain by period

Chinese history