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