Chapter 459 Police, Don’t Move! (1/2)
Chapter 459: Police, Don’t Move!
Translator: Nyoi-Bo StudioEditor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Before they entered Rose's house, Du Dayuan handcuffed the briefcase onto his wrist, giving an impression of him being a very cautious person. He did not remove the handcuffs even after they entered the house.
Li Du prepared fruit juice and coffee for the guests and served them. He also took out the famille rose porcelain that he got from Page.
The three of them examined the porcelain ware. Each of them had one in their hand, carefully scrutinizing the piece of beautiful porcelain.
Hans looked on, hopefully awaiting their conclusion, whereas Li Du appeared to be nonchalant. This was because he had already known the porcelain ware were all imitations.
True enough, the three of them talked softly amongst themselves at first, and Ma Cheng raised his head to give the conclusion. ”Xiao Li, I believe you will be disappointed.”
Hans cried out, ”What's the problem with the porcelain?”
Ma Cheng gave a sigh. Instead of answering Hans's question, he said, ”Let me give an account about the famille rose porcelain.”
Li Du nodded. ”Please go ahead.”
”Famille rose was created during the later years of the Qing Dynasty,” said Ma Cheng, ”under the rule of Emperor Kangxi in a kiln in the city of Jing De Zhen. The porcelain was popular in the Qing court; that gave rise to the saying of the 'secret collection of the Qing Dynasty.'
”The real famille rose is characterized by decorations painted in opaque overglaze rose colors, chiefly shades of pink and carmine. This is to make the color of the finished porcelain appear soft and elegant.”
As he spoke, he picked up a porcelain plate and explained, ”Look at the area here. The patterns on this white-glazed plate, the red, green and ocher: don't the colors seem a bit too rich?”
Hans couldn't really tell the difference. ”Is that so?”
Ma Cheng laughed and said, ”Well, let's continue. The color of the famille rose is gentle and elegant, but the pattern is often rough. The raw materials are coarse and the surface of the porcelain has fading colors and tones.
”Why is this so? This is because the porcelain was fired in a kiln under a low temperature so that when the color enamels and the glaze melted, they would not be closely knitted together. This is a distinctive feature of the Kangxi era famille rose porcelain.
”But look at this porcelain ware—where's the fading colors and tones? It was fired nicely in the kiln, the color enamels were combined perfectly with the glaze. It's very beautiful. In fact, too beautiful!”
He paused for a while after saying that. ”Do you know why I focused on talking about the porcelain during the Kangxi era? There's also porcelain from the Yongzheng era, which has a totally different style from what I've said.”
Hans shook his head while Li Du nodded and replied, ”The base of the plate contains the Chinese characters that mean, 'Made in the Kangxi era.'”
”Yes, exactly,” laughed Ma Cheng. ”The words on the plate state its identity. And ironically, it also discloses its identity as an imitation.”
The peak of Chinese porcelain production was seen during the Qing Dynasty, where improvements in porcelain making reached an unprecedented peak.
Influenced by the hierarchical feudal system and the historical tradition of porcelain making, it was a practice to inscribe on all official kilns and civilian kilns during the Qing dynasty. It was like an official seal mark back then.
As Emperor Kang Xi reigned for 61 years, there were many types of seal marks in that era alone. However, seal marks from official kilns were mainly six traditional Chinese characters forming two or three lines, and only a small amount of porcelain ware had seal marks using the seal script, which appeared much later.
A commonly seen seal mark used in the early days was the Chinese calendar system: the Heavenly Stems & Earthly Branches. It was also included in the inscription beside the name of the Emperor, and sometimes the name of the kiln the porcelain came from.
Ma Cheng told them about what he knew; he continued to speak only when Li Du and Hans nodded to express their understanding.
”Take a look what is written on this plate. The four characters, 'Kang Xi Nian Zhi,' which means 'made in the Kangxi era' is not according to the rules and regulations then. It should be 'Kang Xi Yu Zhi,' which means 'made by Emperor Kang Xi's order.'