"But when you first walked in, you couldn't see the bottom of the bottle." The middle-aged man is probably an intellectual and has a more delicate mind.

"Actually, the bottom tire can also be seen through the glaze color and the edge of the bottle mouth." Zhou Zhi explained patiently: "But there are more important judgment criteria, which are the shape of the vessel, the bottom glaze, the blue and white patterns, and the pattern."

"Let's talk about the shape of the vessel first. The celestial sphere vase is actually a porcelain shape deeply influenced by West Asian culture. It was created and fired in the JDZ kiln during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty. It was popular in Xuande. In the Ming Dynasty, celestial sphere vases were mostly blue and white, and the sea dragon pattern was the most precious. "

"The Ming Dynasty Yongle blue and white cloud-dragon celestial sphere vase formerly collected by the Qing Palace is 41.5 centimeters high, 9.3 centimeters in diameter, and 15.5 centimeters in full diameter."

"The Yongle Tianqiu bottle imitated by the Qianlong Dynasty was fired strictly according to this proportion standard. Although the neck is slightly stretched, the diameter and foot diameter are almost unchanged, or in other words, they are enlarged strictly according to the same ratio."

"This standard is clearly stipulated in the Qing Palace's "Recording Documents of the Manufacturing Office". It was the almost perverted and demanding requirements of the two emperors Yongzheng and Qianlong for imitating the fine products of the previous generation."

"After the Qianlong period, the Tianqiu vase began to undergo greater changes. When it came to the Republic of China, it became more casual."

"Therefore, among the real official kiln porcelains of the Yongzong and Qianlong dynasties, in terms of vessel type, there are only two types, the 'imitation Xuanyao celestial vase' and the proportionally enlarged 'imitation Xuanyao enlarged celestial vase'. The rest are out of proportion. They are all 're-creations' of Qianlong imitations made in later official and private kilns, and they are imitations of imitations."

"There should be an album of industrial art. The Qianlong doucai and pastel dark Eight Immortals entwined branches and lotus pattern celestial sphere vase collected by the Fairbook Art Museum."

"The celestial sphere vase is accurately recorded in the work records of the manufacturing office: 'On June 25th of the third year of Qianlong's reign, Samuha, the leader of the seventh rank, urged the general manager Bai Shixiu to come and tell the eunuch Gao Yu... Five-color enlargement of the Eight Immortals A piece of celestial sphere bottle... will be fired and delivered as usual. When the firing is completed, the original porcelain will be handed back and handed over to the porcelain warehouse... I admire this.'"

"I remember that there was an overall and detailed picture of this bottle in the "Selected List of Important Chinese Porcelain" published by Guardian Auction House in 1989."

Xugong walked to the bookshelf, pulled out a thick book, and opened it: "Elbow, your memory is really amazing, here it is."

The bookends of Bo Ping and Zhou Zhi's recitation are both in the picture album.

Zhou Zhi said: "Actually, most of the good things, especially the jade, porcelain, and bronze ware, except for those collected in museums and later rescued and excavated, have been lost abroad."

He shook his head and said, "Look at the picture. Look at this celestial sphere bottle. Because there is a clear record from the manufacturing office, it is the 'standard instrument' among the Qianlong celestial sphere bottle types."

"In comparison, this gentleman's celestial sphere vase has a slightly longer bottleneck. The key lies in the arc and aspect ratio of the celestial sphere. It deviates too much from the Qianlong style, and the shape of the vase is slimmer."

After speaking, he looked at Mr. Qiao: "My sworn brother must have used this to infer that it is a Tongzhi Celestial Sphere, because this type of vessel is indeed an important feature of the Tongzhi Celestial Sphere."

"Yes, then why do you say it's not Tongzhi Tianqiu?" Wu Qiaomu expressed dissatisfaction.

"Because the basic glaze color and tire opening are wrong!" Zhou Zhi was going crazy.

"I just said that the soil is so greasy and white that it loses its naturalness. This is a characteristic of the porcelain embryo mud processing in the Republic of China. The embryo-making process of Tongzhi porcelain is rougher than that of the third generation. The only improvement is that after the Qianlong reign, the official kilns almost no longer have flint red. The firing of imitation flint red only appeared after the Republic of China. It was also a technique for imitating porcelain before the Ming Dynasty. Really skilled counterfeiters would rarely use it on imitation Qianlong porcelain."

"Tongzhi official kiln porcelain did usher in a short-term glory. It was Cixi who specially allocated 11 million taels of silver from the treasury to make all the wedding items for Emperor Tongzhi, including the wedding porcelain."

"However, most of those porcelains are colored porcelain, with the festive four-character red regular script 'Tongzhi Nianzhi' inscribed on the bottom, as well as specially written auspicious sentences such as 'Jixiang Ruyi', 'Yanxi Tonghe', 'Changchun Tongqing' and other red inscriptions.

Lottery money.”

"Blue and white porcelain is not included in the list at all. This is also a sign that blue and white porcelain has completely declined since Qianlong and is no longer favored by the royal family."

"It is precisely because of this that the Tongzhi official kiln blue and white is similar to the Xianfeng blue and white. It no longer pursues precision work. The texture is white but not refined, slightly thick, and the glaze color is sometimes gray and unclear, with poor transparency. The lines of the peck are straight and stiff.

, a little clumsy.”

"Small devices are acceptable, but it's difficult to maintain the level of three generations on a large device like the Tianqiu bottle."

"And because they are all painted with domestically produced green materials, and the selection and processing times are no longer strict, the quality varies. Some are bright and beautiful in color, while others are dark and black."

"Although the overall advantage of domestically produced green materials is that they are stable, the unique precious color of Ming Dynasty green materials has disappeared, and the green color is floating on the glaze, and there is no sinking feeling."

"In the early days of Tongzhi, the blue and white colors were still bright and bright, but after the government's inventory of glaze was used up, the blue began to turn gray in the later period, even worse than the early private kilns."

"Furthermore, another great feature of Tongzhi blue and white is that there is very little seal money, and there is no sustenance money."

"Cixi may have known it herself. Given the standard of blue and white porcelain produced in official kilns at that time, it was a bit embarrassing to insist on writing 'Xuande Year of the Ming Dynasty' on the bottom."

"Therefore, the Tongzhi official kiln porcelains are still marked with the inscriptions 'Tihedian', 'Dayazhai' and 'Tiandijiachun'. These three porcelain inscriptions were specially designed for Cixi and are the highest level representatives of the Tongzhi Dynasty."

"As you can see, the dark parts of the blue and white of this porcelain are artificially heavily dyed. They are not as dark as the naturally occurring dark spots before Qianlong's reign."

"Therefore, judging from the composition and color of the blue and white, the shape of the porcelain, and the red color of the body, we can deny the possibility that it is the Qianlong blue and white."

"And from the bottom of the body, the identification, and the color of the hair, we can also deny the possibility that it is Tongzhi blue and white."

"Then how can we determine that it is an imitation of the Republic of China?" The middle-aged man no longer dared to look down upon the baby in front of him. He thought he had picked up a treasure, but in the eyes of experts, it turned out to be like a sieve, full of loopholes.

.

Zhou Zhi stood the bottle up again: "In the Republic of China, the tire mud was delicate, lacked sand, the tire was thin, and the body was light. This is its biggest feature."

"The most obvious thing is the green material. The green material is thin and lacks layering, but it is particularly delicate, even more delicate than Yongxuan material. This kind of material is called 'factory material', and it is a pigment that can only be developed through modern mechanized processing.

"

"There is a large dish from the Qianlong Dynasty there," Zhou Zhi pointed to a booth in the hall outside the room: "Comparing the two, you can see the difference in color between the porcelain body and the blue and white."

At this point, the middle-aged man finally couldn't help but no longer believe it, and he handed over his hands and said: "I have been taught, taught, and can see so many things in a short period of time. This little brother is really a master."

"Actually, a lot of it was only discovered later." Zhou Zhi said with a smile: "I knew something was wrong at the first sight, but it was because of a big flaw here."

"Is there something wrong here?" The middle-aged man couldn't help but feel strange: "This is a standard banana leaf pattern!"

Zhou Zhi shook his head: "The early designs of dragon-patterned celestial sphere bottles, whether they are the dragon pattern passing through the lotus pattern, or through the cloud pattern, sea water pattern, bottleneck and bottle belly, are all a whole."

"Now the bottleneck pattern is independently painted as a banana leaf."

"Does this shape exist? Indeed, it does exist, but the patterns on the belly of the vase are usually plant-themed, such as entwined flowers, broken branches, flowers and fruits, etc."

"From the living records of the Qing Dynasty, we should know that all official kiln porcelain of the last three dynasties had extremely strict requirements for drawings and even deposits."

"Only in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, did the celestial sphere bottles with banana leaf decorations on the bottlenecks and eucalyptus dragons on the belly begin to appear. The purpose was very simple, just to save painters."
Chapter completed!