The Forbidden City bronze ware

Author: Palace Museum
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-10-01
Features: Chinese ceramic production has a continuous history of about 8,000 years, during which famous kilns emerged one after another, and masterpieces were constantly created. Since the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, a special variety of ceramics emerged intentionally mimicking ancient wares, which is what people commonly refer to as "antique-style ceramics." The reasons for this are the appreciation of antiquity and the pursuit of profit. The production of antique-style ceramics had initially formed a certain scale during the Ming Dynasty. The Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong periods of the Qing Dynasty, the Guangxu era, and the subsequent Republican period, as well as the 1980s of this century to the present, were three peaks in the production of antique-style ceramics. The imitations cover everything, with a wide variety of types. A considerable portion of them are highly skilled and lifelike in imitation, making it difficult to distinguish between genuine and fake, which poses great challenges to the identification and study of ancient ceramics. The main content of ancient ceramic identification includes judging kiln origins, determining eras, distinguishing authenticity, and evaluating quality and excellence, among which distinguishing authenticity is the most important aspect and also a prerequisite for conducting research on ancient ceramics. As for imitations, people most want to know why they are considered imitations, or from which aspects one can recognize them as imitations. The best way to answer this question is to find the original model being imitated, i.e., the genuine piece. By comparing the genuine piece with the imitation side by side, the differences between them become immediately apparent. Due to limitations in craftsmanship and cultural customs, antique-style ceramics of each period share certain common characteristics. If the typical products of antique-style ceramics in each period can be matched with their original models, and by comparing and analyzing them, patterns can be identified. This can then serve as a reference for identifying ancient ceramics in practical work. The Palace Museum currently holds approximately 340,000 pieces of Chinese ceramics from all dynasties, the majority of which are genuine wares from the five famous kilns of the Song Dynasty and the official kilns of Jingdezhen during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, along with a certain number of antique-style ceramics from various dynasties. These imitations cover a wide range, forming their own systems from the Ming Dynasty to the modern era, and most of them can be paired with genuine pieces. For this special selection, 103 representative works have been chosen and compiled into this book for readers to study and appreciate.