Caring for Ceramics

Posted on May 23, 2023September 9, 2024 by Mark Longley

Mark Longley gives his best advice for caring for ceramics:

Tips on Handling and Examination

Ideally, ceramics should be handled as little as possible and with great care, never picking pieces up by handles or rims, and being aware of loose parts like lids. Wear thin nitrile gloves when handling unglazed wares or, especially if the glaze is flaking. If you are carrying items be sure to use both hands to cradle objects. Always handle pieces over a soft cloth or towel.
Ideally one should have a knowledge of those pieces that are restored or damaged. Examine pieces for losses to the rims, applied decoration, or projecting parts of a piece. Hairline cracks and firing faults are usually noticeable. If you are unsure, always contact a professional fine art surveyor.
Restoration may involve an element of over-painting and damage. This paint will be softer than the hard glaze and can be felt with a soft application of a coin or metal point. Some people might use their teeth on a clean area of repair as this method, while not professionally used or advisable due to increased sensitivity. Older repairs are often apparent because old paint yellows with age. Examine pieces under a strong light for repairs. Use a UV light or a UV torch in a dark room for a more thorough examination of potential restoration. Repairs and natural faults both shine with a strong white light.

Tips on Display and Storage

Never crowd shelves or display cabinets, and place smaller items at the front. Using a display cabinet will reduce the risk of dust and grime attaching itself to your collection and will be protective.
Resist the temptation to stack too many plates in a pile. The resulting weight can easily lead to accidents. Use plate stands or specially designed stands for display.
Take care when hanging plates, that you use the correct size devices otherwise you may put a considerable strain on the plate. Do not hang plates with hairline cracks.
Remove old style plate hangers that have springs to tension the attachment hooks. Replace those with wire hangers. Investigate adhesive hanging devices but be aware that this adhesive might affect certain surfaces.
Store ceramics by wrapping in acid-free tissue paper and bubble wrap and packing into a strong plastic crate.

Tips on Cleaning

Occasionally it may be desirable to wash objects, but usually a careful dust with a soft duster or hogs hair brush should be enough.
Washing may be best done by using swabs of cotton wool or cotton buds, rather than immersing the object in water. A soft toothbrush could be of assistance. Avoid extremely hot water. The addition of a little detergent may help. Never attempt to use bleach to remove stains.
Not all ceramics have a hard glaze. Great care needs to be taken with certain kinds of ceramics where these are porous or made of soft-paste, Parian, or biscuit ware, and never immerse anything which has gold decoration which may be unstable. Some decoration may be applied by a transfer technique, commonly found in antique dinner services, so be aware of rubbing surfaces whilst cleaning or handling.
Keep broken or damaged ceramics carefully until you can get the piece to a professional restorer.

To find out more about our ceramics valuation service, contact us here!

Caring for Ceramics

Posted on November 2, 2020August 22, 2024 by Mark Longley

Tips on Handling and Examination

Ideally, ceramics should be handled as little as possible and with great care, never picking pieces up by handles or rims, being aware of loose parts like lids. Wear thin nitrile gloves when handling unglazed wares or if the glaze is flaking. See tips on cleaning below. If you are carrying items use both hands to cradle objects. Handle pieces over a soft cloth or towel.
Ideally one should have a knowledge of those pieces that are restored or damaged. Examine pieces for losses to the rims, applied decoration or projecting parts of a piece. Hairline cracks and firing faults are usually noticeable. If you are unsure, call a professional Fine Art surveyor.
Restoration may involve an element of over-painting a damage. This paint will be softer than the hard glaze and can be felt with a soft application of a coin or metal point. Some people might use their teeth on a clean area of repair as this method, while not professionally used and advisable, enhances sensitivity. Older repairs are often apparent because old paint yellows with age. Examine pieces under a strong light for repairs. Use a UV light or a UV torch in a dark room for a more thorough examination of potential restoration. Repairs and natural faults both shine with a white light.

A poorly repaired English tin glazed earthenware bowl,
late-17th to mid-18th century

Tips on Display and Storage

Never crowd shelves or display cabinets and place smaller items at the front. Using a display cabinet will reduce the risk of dust and grime attaching itself to your collection and will be protective.
Resist the temptation to stack too many plates in a pile. The resulting weight can easily lead to accidents. Use plate stands or specially designed stands for display.
A collection of vintage plate stands
Take care that when hanging plates, that you use the correct size devices otherwise you may put a considerable strain on the plate. Do not hang plates with hairline cracks.
Remove old style plate hangers that have springs to tension the attachment hooks. Replace those with wire hangers. Investigate adhesive hanging devices but be aware that this adhesive might affect certain surfaces.
Store ceramics by wrapping in acid-free tissue paper and bubble wrap, and packing into a strong plastic crate.

Tips on Cleaning

Occasionally it may be desirable to wash objects, but usually a careful dust with a soft duster or hog’s hairbrush should be enough.
Washing may be best done by using swabs of cotton wool or cotton buds, rather than immersing the object in water. A soft toothbrush could be of assistance. Avoid extremely hot water. The addition of a little detergent may help. Never attempt to use bleach to remove stains.
Not all ceramics have a hard glaze. Great care needs to be taken with certain kinds of ceramics where these are porous or made of soft-paste, or Parian or biscuit ware, and never immerse anything which has gold decoration which may be unstable. Some decoration may be applied by a transfer technique, commonly found in antique dinner services, so be aware of rubbing surfaces with cleaning or handling.
Keep broken or damaged ceramics carefully until you can get the piece to a professional restorer.

Enter the Dragon- The rise of Chinese buyers in the Art Market

Posted on October 9, 2020August 22, 2024 by Mark Longley

From my experience in the UK Art Market the rise of interest from Chinese buyers has been enormous. For the first part of my career I worked in the European works of art and Asian Art salerooms of Christie’s South Kensington during the late 1990’s. The supply of available material for sale meant that every other week we could sell Chinese and Japanese works of art and porcelain. Very few clients were from the Asian countries, with most being drawn from the London and European trade. There was no internet and most buyers were reliant on catalogues, being present to bid or telephone bidding to buy at auction.

The current market is completely different. The availability of the internet to view sales, the use of agents for buyers in China and the global nature of the Art business has completely changed the market, with Chinese buyers coming to London especially in November to view and buy at sales and via the trade during Asian Art week. Regional salerooms have as much power to sell high value works of Chinese Art, as Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Bonhams. Regional auctioneers, while retaining their business independence, have worked together with the common interest to service and support the rise in demand for services to Chinese buyers.

The most valuable and saleable objects that are sold in the trade and via auction are those that exhibit rarity and a fine provenance. Previous ownership from a distinguished family, history and proof of trade via prestigious dealers all confirm on an object, a proof of history and by virtue of these qualities value.

At Rosebery’s Fine art auctioneers in July 2020, a rare pair of Chinese porcelain wall or sedan chair vases, from the reign of the Emperor Qianlong were sold for £324,500 including buyer’s premium. They were consigned from a private collection in the UK, and decorated in what were termed as yangcai or “foreign colours” because of the pink famille rose grounds, which came to the knowledge of Chinese craftsmen from the influence of European missionaries and craftsmen who were in China. The Emperor Qianlong was a connoisseur of porcelain and ordered his craftsmen at the Imperial porcelain works in Jingdezhen to design a vase for a sedan chair for flowers. He is known to have written poetry, some of which appears on these vases, and those sold in the past.
The Imperial poem inscribed on the offered pair of vases, titled ‘The Hanging Bottle’, is documented in The Complete Library of the Four Treasures. The Qianlong emperor composed this poem in 1758, the 23rd year of his reign, to express his delight upon viewing a sedan vase filled with fresh flowers hanging in his sedan chair on the way to a hunting trip. There are 320 Qianlong wall vases recorded in the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing and about 138 of them are inscribed with poems by the emperor. There are thirteen wall vases in varying glazes and forms on the wall of The Hall of Three Rarities, the emperor’s special study in the Hall of Mental Cultivation in the Forbidden City.

The value achieved at auction was influenced by the colour of the decoration, the fact that they were a pair and that they had direct connection to the Emperor Qianlong. A Chinese agent eventually secured the winning bid.

A pair of Chinese porcelain wall or sedan chair vases, from the reign of the Emperor Qianlong were sold for £324,500 in July 2020. Image courtesy of Rosebery’s fine Art auctioneers.

Scholars have collected a wide range of different ceramic wares from China over the centuries. Of my favourite are the wares decorated in single colours or variations of this theme. One type of ware is called Jun ware and dates from the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Ceramics were produced in Junzhou Prefecture (today’s Yuzhou) in Henan province, found in the middle of China. Ceramic production lasted there from the Song (960-1279) to the Ming (1368-1644) dynasty and is usually typified a thick almost custard like pale purple glaze, with splashes of a deeper purple on the surface. These wares, while not greatly prized, were still revered in the Ming dynasty and continue to achieve high values at auction.

Chinese Jun bowl produced during the Song Dynasty. Image courtesy of Woolley and Wallis.

This Chinese Jun bowl was sold on the 21^st May 2014 for £26,000 and is typical of the wares produced during the Song Dynasty, but was attributed to a rival faction of the same period, the Jin. It is typical of the type of bowl made of the period with the thick pale lavender coloured glaze over laid with abstract cloud like large purple splashes.

Bill of sale Chinese Jun bowl dated 1946

Invoice for the Chinese Jun bowl dated 1946, from John Sparks, London. Images courtesy of Woolley and Wallis.

Of importance to the piece was the provenance from the dealership of John Spark’s Ltd, a prominent London dealer, whose receipt was sold with the piece, dated the 1^st January 1946 and the former owner, the late Dowager Viscountess Harcourt. Of equal importance is the fact that a similar form of bowl is found in the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing.

Made in China, a Brief Guide to the Meaning of Chinese Porcelain Marks

Posted on October 9, 2020October 21, 2024 by Mark Longley

As a valuer of Chinese and European ceramics, one of the main actions in assessing an item is to look at the base of an object as it can tell a thousand stories.

Mostly, this simple action will yield information, although on the rare occasion it does not, you might find the ashes of your client’s beloved relative at your feet, or indeed the corpse of a dead mouse. While I have not had the ashes of any deceased individual at my feet, passing meetings with mummified mice are a hazard of the job to which I can relate to in the hunt for an item’s history and authenticity.

The marks on Chinese porcelain wares are generally found on the base of the pot and are made up of four or six characters or a stylised seal mark, made of geometric designs that mirror the handwritten characters.

The marks will generally refer to an Emperor’s reign and confusingly are not a real indication of the age of the piece. If the age of the porcelain is considered to be of the same date as the mark in question, it is commonly described as being “of mark and period.” However, Chinese potters did mark porcelain with earlier reign marks to the date of the manufacture as a mark of respect to earlier wares and Emperors.

This can cause some confusion with dating Chinese porcelain!

Only expertise and experience can assess age, although sometimes an invasive test, such as a thermoluminescence test, might assist the valuer. Invasive tests are far from ideal as they do require a sample to be removed from a pot. Commonly, ancient Chinese terracotta tomb figures are sold on the marketplace with these tests and accompanying certificates. Oxford is currently one of the centres for issuing these certificates in the UK.

The translation of the marks one finds on Chinese porcelains are well documented in books including Gerald Davison’s excellent, “The Handbook of Marks on Chinese Ceramics”, which includes the main reign marks for the Ming and Qing dynasty emperors and other less commonly documented marks.

With practise, comparing and reading both written and seal marks on Chinese porcelain becomes easier, especially with the correct textbooks by your side. However, with a little more knowledge of written Chinese and the method of writing Chinese characters, this can be made easier and more satisfying to understand.

Each character would have been applied with a brush; the shapes made by varying the amount of pressure applied to the brush as the stroke is made. This is also relevant to forming Chinese characters in calligraphy. Each character would have been made by performing a varied number of strokes, from three to fourteen in the characters below. Understanding the order in which the strokes are written (generally left to right), their proportion and the formation of the character can help one to appreciate the character more precisely, and if one could understand the components of each character more fully, one would be able to consult a Chinese dictionary to find the meaning. Mostly marks used on Chinese porcelain appear as commonly used words in today’s modern Chinese language. For example, the character for year has not changed in hundreds of years, and can be found on Ming porcelain, and in an e mail today.

The first mark below is a Ming blue and white porcelain bowl that sold for $7,470,000 (£733,927) at Christie’s Hong Kong in May 2013 and below that, a pair of Yongzheng doucai conical Dragon bowls and covers, that sold for £212,000 at Christie’s London in November 2019.

The mark below shows from the top right down to left down, the characters for Da Ming Xuan, De Nian li, which translates as Great Ming Xuan De Year produced (in) or effectively, “this piece was produced in the reign of the Ming Emperor Xuan De.”

Ming porcelain mark. Image courtesy of Christie’s

The mark below shows from top right down and across to the left, the characters Da Qing Yong Zheng Nian li, with translates as Great Qing Yong Zheng Year produced (in), or effectively, “this piece was produced in the reign of the Qing Emperor Yong Zheng.”

Yongzheng porcelain mark . Image courtesy of Christie’s