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The Craft of Ancient Chinese Porcelain

Professor Quan Kuishan

Professor Quan Kuishan showed more than objects in his conversation with Curator Ronald Otsuka. To demonstrate the craft of ancient Chinese porcelain, he gave the Denver audience a fuller perspective by presenting a series of slides, showing the techniques used in its production.

The photographs were all taken in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, the foremost center of porcelain production in China since the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368). There, skills have been handed down through the generations and are now employed to make fine copies of the early Chinese porcelains. From the extraction and treatment of clay from mines in nearby Gaoling Mountain (hence the name given to the fine white kaolin clay), to the throwing, glazing, and firing processes, Professor Quan described how skilled potters used rudimentary tools to produce, many believe, the highest of the imperial arts.

During the workshop, Professor Quan also explained how knowledge of the original manufacturing processes is one of the six factors that he considers when authenticating early Chinese porcelains. Comparing genuine objects from the Denver Art Museum collection to a copy that he had brought from Beijing, he pointed out that slight ribbing on the inside surface of the original objects showed that they were thrown on the potter's wheel. The copy was so smooth that it could only have been produced in a mold. The other five factors are the shape, clay type, glaze, decoration and reign mark of the object, all of which need to be considered with respect to its provenance. Its condition and appearance will vary depending on whether it was an heirloom object, raised from a shipwreck, or unearthed from a kiln site, a tomb, or a buried cache.

Finally, Professor Quan warned, collectors need also to be aware also of the techniques used by forgers to reproduce the appearance of ancient porcelains. After treatment with acid, smoke, or water, the surface of a forgery will be degraded, but in ways that can be distinguished from the natural degradation of an original object. Having learned of how near-perfect copies are made in Jingdezhen using the old manufacturing methods, the audience was careful to take this last point to heart.

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