Asianart.com | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries

Could anybody help me with this chinese porcelain vase?

Hi Eric,

This is the mark for Guan ware or Kuan ware. It is one of the Five Famous Kilns of Song Dynasty China (960–1279), making high-status stonewares, whose surface decoration relied heavily on crackled glaze, randomly crazed by a network of crack lines in the glaze.

Guan means "official" in Chinese and Guan ware was, most unusually for Chinese ceramics of the period, the result of an imperial initiative resulting from the loss of access to northern kilns such as those making Ru ware and Jun ware after the invasion of the north and the flight of a Song prince to establish the Southern Song at a new capital at Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. It is usually assumed that potters from the northern imperial kilns followed the court south to man the new kilns
Less usual shapes include those derived from ancient ritual bronzes and jade congs. Bowls and dishes often have "lobed or indented rims.

Below is an example of the mark. If you invert yours, then it is similar.

Kind regards,

Miano

Asianart.com | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries |