Chinese Damaged Ceramics

Large numbers of chinese ceramics are offered around the world at reputable auction houses which unlike museums allow potential buyers to handle them so make the most of.

Chinese damaged ceramics. Chinese ceramics range from construction materials such as bricks and tiles to hand built pottery vessels fired in bonfires or kilns to the sophisticated chinese porcelain wares made for. This is an old trick that dealers and collectors use to find damage hiding in plain sight don t overlook chips on the base of porcelain pieces though. They may even find numerous pieces around a house along with the usual bric a brac and inevitably some is damaged. The history of kintsugi.

A guide to buying chinese ceramics by leila de vos european head of chinese works of art at christie s. But many pieces are broken when they are found. The first pottery was made during the palaeolithic era. Chinese ceramics show a continuous development since pre dynastic times and are one of the most significant forms of chinese art and ceramics globally.

Chinese porcelain broken and damaged frequently people will come across a piece of chinese or japanese porcelain that s been tucked away and forgotten or found while in the process of settling a family member s estate. Kintsugi or kintsukori dates back to the 15th century when according to legend shogun ashikaga yoshimasa broke his favorite chawan a chinese ceramic tea bowl and sent it back to china for repair it was returned and fixed but bound by ugly metal staples. The most important thing is to buy what you love this should always be the main driving force behind your. Where condition and age were historically the prime considerations in buying a piece the rapid rise in prices due to the opening of the far eastern market has curtailed the ability of some to buy certain pieces and has therefore brought back into favour pieces with some form of damage.

Rim chips on porcelain pieces are usually the easiest to notice. There are a number of things to look for when starting to collect chinese ceramics. The buying trends of collectors for chinese ceramics have noticeably changed over the last fifteen years. Chinese potters have copied chinese ceramics for hundreds of years both out of reverence for an earlier period and to fool buyers so beware.

You can feel for chips in porcelain in the same way that you run your finger along the glass to look for sharp edges. This inspired him to find an elegant way to amend the ceramic and as a result kintsugi was born.