The specialists guide to Chinese antiques.

I am always a fan of people who dig into a subject, taking the time to take photos, make illustrations and simply dig in to the nitty-gritty details. People often forget that it takes time to take the time to share their own thoughts and insights on topics they are passionate about. So I was [...]

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Somehow I missed this one (which dates all the way back to 2007).  While I have to admit its a bit cynical to say it, I find this absolutely hilarious (on so many levels, I can’t even begin to touch on all of them).  From rampant piracy in China, to its historical context concerning fakes [...]

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“I have a lot of people approach me with inquires about selling porcelain collections they have either inherited or amassed over the years. I am guessing this might be one of the reasons why:”

THE OWNERS of a Chinese imperial vase which sold for €110,000 at a Co Laois auction on Tuesday – a record-breaking price [...]

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Note: All images are clickable.
During our treks and travels, we come across all sorts of rare, unusual and interesting things. Like this 300 year old temple table we stumbled across this past summer. Or this Chinese ancestor painting which eventually wound up permanently wall-mounted in a friends living room. But this cache of Han Dynasty earthenware, [...]

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Another super quick post but a link worth including here: http://www.oxfordauthentication.com/
One thing to be aware of is that thermoluminescence testing works only with fired items, in other words items like porcelain, earthenware or bronze. If you don’t know what thermoluminescence testing is have a quick read of the snippet below from their website:

Thermoluminescence
A [...]

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(This is a section from a previous post which I think is worth separating out here, since I am asked this question quite a lot).
Where can I find more detailed information on Chinese porcelain, pottery and ceramics?
Chinese porcelain, Oriental ceramics and Japanese porcelain and pottery are all unique entire subjects of their own [...]

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I recently was looked over a friends personal collection of Chinese porcelain wares, which I have been meaning to post photos and descriptions of here for quite some time. For now, I have included a slide show below which pulls the images from ACF’s page on Flickr.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
The hi-resolution images can be viewed [...]

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Nice little article here which explains what Cloisonné is, (Cloisonné is a form of enamelware) which a surprising number of people are unfamiliar with. Another article on the The Antique Marks Blog entitled “Antique Cloisonne Ware – Collectible? Popular? Profitable?” also gives a bit of the history associate with Chinese cloisonne and also Russian cloisonne.
I [...]

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Porcelain garden stools continue to remain extremely popular. They seem to add a nice touch to either the living room or the garden which makes them quite versatile. And there is quite a lot of variety in styles. Which may explain why they are selling so well out on the web. They were [...]

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Here’s a nice post on another blog that I happened to stumble upon today:

Rose Medallion Porcelain – An Antique Chinese Import

Very informative overview of how to recognize and collect 19th and 20th century rose-medallion china. While not necessarily Chinese porcelain, he also has a nice explanation of what Flow Blue China is.

Related Books:
The Porcelain Workshop: [...]

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Probably one of the smallest, yet most sought items in Chinese antiques is called the snuff bottle. Snuff bottles were used by the Chinese during the Qing Dynasty to contain powdered tobacco. During the mid- to late-16th century the use of snuff and snuff bottles spread through the upper class, and by [...]

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Another excellent youtube find.
[http://youtube.com/watch?v=742wDih0ySI]

Related Books:
Original – Copy – Fake?: International Symposium
The Porcelain Workshop: For a New Grammar of Politics (Semiotext(e) / Foreign Agents)
- You are reading content from http://www.antique-chinese-furniture.com/blog/ © 2006 – 2009 -

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There are some good youtube posting on porcelain and ceramics, starting out with this interesting eight minute long academic video overview of the history of Asian ceramics put out by the “Minneapolis Institute of Arts.“
“Ceramic production in Asia dates back many thousands of years. The Chinese have always been regarded as the undisputed masters of [...]

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Here is an excerpt from an interesting article I found on yahoo about Hong Kong’s Hollywood road:
“On Hollywood Road, Hong Kong’s famed strip of art and antique outlets, the shopfronts provide a veritable tour of Chinese and Asian history, selling everything from Tibetan temple carpets and centuries-old Chinese wedding cabinets to giant Cambodian and Burmese [...]

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This is yet another interesting youtube find, and this particular one deals with the making of Tang dynasty style tri-colored glazed pottery figurines. Its actually quite good – showing you the entire process from rolling out the initial clay to the sculpting of the figurine.

Here is a snippet from their youtube posting:
Tang Tri-color ware was [...]

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