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Re: Re: Ming blue and white dish

Posted By: Bill H
Posted Date: Jan 04, 2019 (09:23 PM)

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The mark on your dish appears to read "Made for the Kangxi Hall" (康熙堂製 - Kang-xi tang zhi), which isn't mentioned either in Gerald Davison's 2013 reprint of "The New & Revised Handbook of Marks on Chinese Ceramics" or the fairly comprehensive 2006 Mainland China-published "Encyclopedia of Markings on Historic Chinese Porcelains". The mark also is in an apparently restored and re-glazed or repainted area, which if what it seems to be, would indicate the mark is apocryphal and the dish probably quite new.

I'll take the occasion to repeat for the benefit of anyone interested, that double rings around period Kangxi six-character standard-script reign marks signified imperial wares. The only imperial Kangxi dishes of which I'm aware with four-character markings, again in standard script, were those within square borders reading "Made by Imperial Order, Kangxi Reign" (康熙御製 - Kang-xi Yu Zhi) written in underglaze blue and, rarely, also in red.

While reminding that every rule has its exceptions, Anthony J. Allen mentions in his most recent book, "Allen's Antique Chinese Porcelain - The Detection of Fakes", a general precept holding that fake Kangxi reign marks did not appear until the Guangxu Reign (1875-1908).

I would add to this that most examples of Kangxi four-character marks reading "Made during the Kangxi Reign" (康熙年製 - Kang-xi Nian Zhi) date to the late-Qing and Republic eras, although the aforementioned Mainland compendium of Historic mark shows a few period examples of underglaze blue minyao (popular) marks with and without double circles. I've also come across one dish in the Kangxi style with the same Kraak-style compartmented decoration described as Japanese-made, although it was unmarked.

Best regards,

Bill H.

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