Mother of Porcelain

Do you know what is so special about this vase? It is considered as priceless by collectors all over the world. It has 17 different types of glaze applied on its surface and it was made in the Qianlong period of the Qing dynasty. It is known as the Mother of Porcelain in the world of antiques.

Mother of Porcelain

There are only two such vases (I mean genuine one) in the world, one in a museum in Beijing and the other in a collector's hand. What is special about these two vases is that there are 17 types of different glaze applied on the vase. The glaze required a firing temperature ranging from 1300 to 700 degrees C. Currently, there is no name given to this type of vase but they are generally referred to as the Mother of Porcelain.

 As we know, Emperor Qianlong of the Qing dynasty had a passion for vases produced in the Yuan, Song and Ming dynasty; the blue-n-white, Fengchai, Douchai, enamel glaze, etc. One day he instructed his officer in charge of Jingdezhen (Porcelain capital of China) to make a vase having different types of glaze applied on it. That was an extremely difficult task as these different glazes required different firing temperature from a high of 1300 degrees to a low of 700 degrees C.

After many trials, the potters at Jingdezhen were able to develop a technique to make such vases. How they did it was to apply the glaze of the highest firing temperature and fired the vase to develop the hue. Then they proceeded to apply the lower-temperature glaze to the vase and then fired it at a lower temperature. In this way, the glaze was applied in successive stages where the firing temperature was lowered after each stage of firing. Due to this complicated procedure, the success rate was very low. So far only one such vase was known to exist in the world, i.e., in the Beijing Museum.

One day, some major antique collectors/dealers of the world received an auction catalogue which showcased this type of vase. The auction house was an unknown company from a small town in Boston and the estimated price was 15 to 25 thousand USD. There were some minor defects (small cracks) in this vase and the defects were rectified.


Staff of auction house examining the vase

At first, an expert collector/connoisseur in China thought that the vase was a fake as this type of vase would be very highly sought after by collectors if it was put up for auction. But the auction house only gave such a very low estimated price. When he checked the background of this vase, he found that the vase belonged to a famous western collector who paid 1000 USD for it many years ago. It was subsequently sold for 4000 USD to another collector who then passed it to his son. The last owner was a graduate of Harvard University and the vase was subsequently donated to the University to raise fund. Hence it was put up for auction in this small town in Boston. Since no one knew the worth of this vase, its price was estimated to be 15 to 25k USD, still a lot of money considered the last sold price of 4000 USD.

This expert collector in China was indeed very familiar with the vases produced during the Qianlong era. When he examined the style of painting and the glaze used, he confirmed that this piece was a genuine piece produced during the Qianlong period. He realised that there would be a fierce bidding for it during the auction of this vase as other collectors might have found out about the worth of this vase. He estimated the price could escalate to 200 millions RMB.

Only experts recognised the worth of this vase

A friend of this collector called him regarding this vase. He said he wanted to buy this vase for his new private museum and ask for the expert's advice. The expert told him this piece was considered a must-have if he wanted to showcase it in his museum. Even though there were some minor defects, he would expect that the bidding could  go up to 200 millions RMB; as there were only two such vases in the world, one being in Beijing Museum (not for sale) and this was the only one available for bidding.

The vase being auctioned in Boston

As expected, during the auction, most of the world's major antique collectors/dealers and art lovers gathered in this small auction house in Boston. Bidding was fierce and eventually the vase was sold to this guy who intend to showcase it in his new private museum. The price was 152 millions RMB. One consolation though, he did not have to bid higher than the 200 millions RMB as predicted by the expert.

The mark of Qianlong Emperor at the base of the vase

Broken Antique Pieces 2

This blue-n-white vase from the Yuan dynasty fetched a record price of 230 millions RMB during its auction in 2002. Why is the Yuan blue-n-white vase (as it is called in the market) so expensive? In the world of antiques, rarity is priceless. There were only about 40 odd blue-n-white vases
in the world today and most of them are in museums. Not only that, these vases usually have interesting ancient stories of historical figures painted on them in blue-white glaze. The vases before that have flowers and scenery painted on them. Hence, whenever there is a blue-n-white on auction, all the big shots of the world will bid until they bleed, just to get their hand on this rare piece of art work. Blue-n-white ware started during the Yuan dynasty, flourished during the Ming dynasty and reached its peak during the early Qing dynasty.

Yuan blue-n-white vase

There is  a collector, who has a passion for broken porcelain pieces, managed to get two blue-n-white vases, all from the flea market. These two vases have paintings of the famous seven taoists and five lords of their faith. The figures on the vases are very well painted with different shades of blue glaze.

How could a collector manage to find two Yuan blue-n-whites in the flea market where broken porcelain pieces were traded?

If you remember in my earlier post, this collector has a passion for broken porcelain pieces. He bought one such piece for 5500 RMB (the dragon piece) and a businessman offered him one million RMB yet he refused to part with this broken piece.

This collector (Mr C) liked to frequent flea markets to look for broken porcelain pieces. After spending a few thousand RMB buying the broken porcelain from a girl, he was about to leave the stall when the girl took out a broken piece kept under her clothing. She showed it to Mr C. Due to his many years of experience in handling broken porcelain, immediately he knew this was an important piece. He wanted to buy it but the girl said it was not for sale. No matter how he persuaded the girl, he was just not able to buy it. He left the place disappointed and frustrated. When he returned to the market the next .day, the girl was no where to be found. He searched high and low in all flea markets of the city and still he was unable to locate the girl.

A few years later, he travelled north to another city. In a flea market, he finally spotted the girl selling broken porcelain pieces. The girl remembered him. When asked about that broken porcelain, she told him that it was a piece taken from a broken vase.

She later told him the reason why she could not sell him the broken porcelain. She said this broken piece belong to a particular group of persons. What was more astonishing was that the all of the broken pieces from this vase actually belonged to three different group of people. Mr C realised that it was an impossible task (Mission Impossible) to acquire all these broken pieces. Anyway, he needed to give it a try. Hence he got the girl to arrange a meeting with all the co-owners of the broken pieces of porcelain. He wanted to see what was on offer before he could name a price.

When the broken pieces were brought to him, he was stunned. Why?

Not only these pieces were from a genuine blue-n-white Yuan vase, he realised that they were actually from 2 broken vases as he saw 2 bases. It would be incredible if he could lay his hand on all these pieces. He wanted to buy these pieces whatever the cost.

He had a mission, if he was able to acquire all these pieces, perhaps if could restore them to their original form. It would be an impossible task knowing that there were so many co-owners of these pieces. The smallest group of them all was one person, then the biggest was the group with 17 people. The intermediate group comprised of 5 people. It was really an uphill task to get all of them to sell the pieces to him.

The first broken piece was from the lone owner. As the negotiations went on, he was able to buy this piece from him. He also managed to get the smaller group to sell him the pieces belong to them.

His biggest hurdle was to convince the biggest group of 17 co-owners to part with their pieces. As this group comprised of 17 people, they asked for a very high price of more than 2 millions RMB. This was not a small sum at that time. Negotiations went on and on but without success. Mr C brought along his wife for the negotiations but still they could not resolved their differences.

Mrs C knew her husband's desire to own all the broken pieces. She had to help him to fulfil his dream. They had earlier invested in a property worth around 2 millions RMB. The only way they could meet the demand of the last group of co-owners was to sell off this property. So they got rid of the property at a price slightly below market value. With fresh funds in their hand, they finally purchased the rest of the porcelain pieces from their owners.

Two years later, the broken pieces of porcelain were pieced together. They are two lovely blue-n-white vases. These are the two blue-n-white Yuan vases I mentioned earlier in this post.

Mr C is a determined collector. His passion for the blue-n-white ware enabled him to restore numerous antiques from broken pieces. How many of us can do what Mr C did. Not only you need to have passion and good judgement, you need financial means as well to achieve such a  task.

Broken Antique Pieces

When someone broke a vase, what would he do with the broken pieces of porcelain on the floor? Obviously, he would be angry with himself. Then he would clean up and throw the broken pieces of porcelain into the bin. Everybody would then say he did the right thing as there was nothing he could salvage from those broken pieces.

But today if anyone break a vase, I will advise him. Don't throw away the broken pieces as there is a market for them, especially so if these pieces are from antique vases, the older and the rarer the antique broken pieces, the more valuable they are.

But why do people collect broken pieces of antiques?

The reason is obvious. The genuine antiques are so valuable that they are beyond the average collectors' budget. Usually these antiques are sold in auctions where the prices can only go up and up and only the one with the highest bid can take home such antiques.

For instance, in a recent auction (2014) in Hong Kong, a rare Chenghua chicken cup was sold for a record price of 280 million RMB. A few years earlier a blue and white vase from the Yuan dynasty was auction for a phenomenal price of 230 million RMB. It was quoted as saying that the money could exchange for 8 tons of gold at the prevailing price of gold at that instance. As collectors' appetite grow for such valuable things, they sought to look for a cheaper alternative, the broken pieces of antique vases. Some buy these broken pieces as they want to learn to recognize feature/characteristics of antiques through studying these pieces. Some buy them as they want to turn these broken pieces into small little jewelry items. Yet some buy them with a view to make money if they have spotted some genuine good pieces.

Chenghua chicken cup

Yuan dynasty's blue n white vase

Market where broken antique pieces are being traded

In the beginning, broken antique pieces were traded at a very affordable prices. Some were selling at tens and hundreds of RMB. As more and more people are joining the hunt for these broken pieces, prices of these antique pieces escalate. It has become a common thing for the average income group to go on a treasure hunt to supplement their income.

A broken piece from Yuan dynasty depicting a full dragon 

Many years ago, a collector spotted this broken piece of porcelain (above picture) from a fisherman in Hainan. He liked it so much that he wanted to buy it. However the owner refused to sell him. After many rounds of negotiations, they finally settled at a price of 5000 RMB (a ridiculous price at that time). Just when he was to pay the fisherman, the fisherman raised the price to 5500 RMB.  The collector had no choice but to pay him the money as he really like this broken piece. He did not even know what he was buying and if it was really worth the money he had paid. He just liked the dragon which was very well painted on the porcelain, full of life and vitality.

A businessman later offer this collector 1 million RMB if he would like to sell the broken piece to him. This collector did not take up the offer as he had a passion for such beautiful pieces. This broken piece of porcelain was later confirmed to be from the Yuan dynasty. Could you imagine how much it is worth? The collector later quited his high-pay job and spend his time to study the blue-n-white porcelain pieces form the Yuan dynasty. He has since collected quite a good number of pieces from the Yuan dynasty.

Details of the dragon

There is another collector who also has a passion for broken antique pieces. He has one such piece from the Song dynasty. This piece was from the 5 famous kilns of the Song era, namely, Lu, Kuan, Ge, Juin and Din. That piece was from the Lu kiln where the antiques were considered priceless even during the later Song era (Southern Song dynasty). What was even more astonishing is that this piece exhibits some dragon marks (scale-like motifs) on the glaze. This was something unheard of even among scholars who are experts of the Song dynasty antiques of that era. This type of graze made the piece very valuable. One businessman offered the collector 300000 RMB but he would not even sell it for 3 million RMB. It was the only piece to have such feature in all the existing Song Lu ware.

A rare piece of Lu ware

Other broken pieces of blue and white porcelains are equally attractive. No wonder so many collectors spend a lot of time and effort in collecting them.

Apart from their artistic and antique value, some broken porcelain pieces contain invaluable information on the history of porcelain, the use of glaze and the type of ware, its design and origin. This information is vital to people who seek to do research on porcelain. For instance, some broken pieces contain a lot of writings,  yet unknown to the average collectors as to the meaning of such writings.

 

Scholars and researchers gather together to study these writings. These pieces were aslo exhibited regularly and feedbacks were sought from the public. As a result, the experts have a better understanding of the history and development of porcelain through the early years.

Broken pieces with writings

It is interesting to know that broken porcelain pieces have so many things to offer the collectors, their value, history, culture and art. The next time if you are so  unlucky that you break your vase accidentally, don't be angry and throw away the broken pieces. They can be sent for restoration or they can be made into interesting art and craft decorations or jewelry items.

Don't forget there is a market for broken antique pieces. Just keep your broken pieces and sought experts' advice. You may be able to salvage something from them.

Shao Dahen the man

There is a teapot made by the legendary Shao Dahen during the mid-Qing dynasty. In the County Annals of Yixing, it was written that teapots by Shao Dahen were rare and priceless as there were very few of his teapots left behind in this world. He was considered the best potter ever lived in Yixing. Even the grandmaster Gu Jingzhou had deep respect and admiration for his works.

Figurine of Shao Dahen

Shao Dahen's famous Duozhi pot is now on display in a Shanghai Yixing museum, a privately owned museum owned by a teapot fanatic.

Shao Dahen's Duozhi pot

The legendary Gu Jingzhou considered Shao's teapots to be the best in this world. He often imitated Shao's work in the 60s.

Gu Zingzhou

Shao was a great potter not only because of his excellent skills, He was an upright person not intimidated by power and authority. There was a story that he was beaten up and jailed  for refusing to make teapots for the corrupt magistrate in the county where he lived. But there was an even more interesting account of him for showing humanity and passion for innocent people.

The legend had it that there was this magistrate in the Yixing county. He liked to drink tea and also collect teapots. It was told that he ever owned a teapot made by Shao Dahen. Even during that time, it was not easy to own a teapot made by Shao. Hence, Shao's teapots were considered precious and priceless. This magistrate was deeply in love with this pot due to fine workmanship. Everyday he would instruct his servant maid to brew tea with this teapot. He would sip tea while enjoying the beauty of the pot made by Shao. Unfortunately, one day the servant was a bit careless and dropped the teapot. It smashed into pieces on the floor.

The magistrate was furious when he saw his favourite teapot broken into many pieces. Out of anger, he demanded the death of the servant to pay for the loss of this precious pot.

The maid must die for breaking this precious teapot

When Shao Dahen heard of this incident, immediately he brought some of his teapots to see the magistrate.

He pleaded with the magistrate not to punish the servant and he was prepared to let the magistrate choose any teapots he liked in exchange for the maid's life.

The magistrate took a look at Shao's teapots and they were all professionally made and were of the highest quality. Then he remembered that Shao's teapots were indeed hard to come by. He agreed to Shao's request that he would spare the maid's life in exchange for one of Shao's teapots.

Then Shao Dahen let the magistrate chose the teapot he liked from all the pots he brought along. After the magistrate had chosen a teapot, Shao then packed the rest of the teapots and was about to leave.

Then suddenly the magistrate stopped Shao from leaving. He told Shao that he liked all his teapots and wondered if Shao could sell all the pots to him. He told Shao to name a price for all the pots. He thought that Shao would be very please to this transaction as Shao could receive a fortune by selling these teapots to him.

 On hearing that the magistrate wanted to buy all his teapots, he immediately put down the teapots. Without saying a word, he started smashing his teapots with a stick. All these beautiful and precious teapots became broken pieces of clay on the floor.

The magistrate was shocked by this sudden change of event. He could not imagine these beautiful and precious teapots all smashed up in front of him.

He wanted to know why Shao would smashed all his teapot rather than selling them to him for a fortune. Do you know why Shao did what he did in front of the magistrate? Do you also want to know what Shao had spoken to the magistrate or the reason behind his action?

Shao told the magistrate, " If I let you have all my teapots, I don't know how many people would die because of all these teapots that I made."

Obviously he was telling the magistrate. Teapots were nice to have but nothing could compare to the lives of innocent people. The magistrate, powerful he might be, could not just let innocent lives to be lost because of his love for the teapots.

After Shoa had broken these teapots, there were very few of Shao's teapots around these days. No wonder they are very precious indeed. They are precious not only because of their fine workmanship, it is because of the person who made them. A potter who treasured life more than anything in this world. No wonder the legendary Gu Jingzhou had such high regards for this man.

There is a lesson to be learned. We may have passion for certain things. But we cannot let this passion hurts the people around us.