Throughout most of Ancient China, there were many individuals who competed to find the rarest and most valuable art pieces they could find. Being first recognized during the Song dynasty (960 – 1279 A.D.), collectors were willing to pay high prices for such goods despite not actually understanding their original function. Because of this recklessness, many purchased art pieces were later found to be forgeries. Over time, people began to learn from these mistakes and, soon, Chinese collectors began to develop quite a keen eye.
While I decided to choose to read about ceramics and how Chinese buyers collected them, I realized, after reading other posts that decided to focus on calligraphy or bronzes, that there wasn’t that much detail provided on how ceramics were authenticated. For bronzes, I learned that buyers would authenticate the pieces by checking their inscriptions, and, for calligraphy, they would search for ones that had a proper label, mark, or seal. But there was no information on how one would identify if a ceramic was authentic or not. From this, I derived two conclusions: 1) there was no way a person could determine if a ceramic piece was fake or not and, instead, had to rely on good instincts and judgment to purchase it, or 2) there were fewer instances of counterfeit as these pieces were especially time-consuming and difficult to make.
Things I learned this week:
- During the Ming dynasty (1368-1644 A.D), art-collecting was an exclusively male pursuit in China.
- Being first recognized during the Song dynasty (960 – 1279 A.D.), collectors were willing to pay high prices for such goods despite not actually understanding their original function.
- Bronzes were authenticated by their inscriptions while works of calligraphy were authenticated by finding an official label, mark, or seal on the writing.
Bibliography
Clunas, Craig. Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China. Honolulu: Univ Of Hawai’i Press, 2016.
