The Porcelain Thread

[Brent D]

We talk about clay so much, but we rarely talk about porcelain.
If you really want to taste a tea with all its good and bad, and not hide anything, this will show it all.
There is so much to learn about collecting vintage and older pieces too. I find that the glaze from vintage porcelain also puts a softness to tea that modern porcelain just doesnt have, Id really love to learn more about porcelain teaware. Ive seen pics of some beautiful qing and ROC gaiwans, but never seen any for sale.
I drink from porcelain yunomi from the 70s. I love them.
I think there should be a porcelain thread. Now there is

[Bok]

Good move!

I also think that porcelain does not get the attention it deserves, seen that in most cases it is the safest and best option to enjoy a tea’s taste unadultered.
I regulary browse my local thrift shops and markets for antique porcelain. While cups and bowls are easy to be found from, especially the late Qing, early ROC period and at what I think pretty cheap prices, teapots are almost never to be found!

In Europe, especially the UK and Holland, chances for some nice export porcelain pots are higher, but usually only in medium or large capacity, gongfu sized is rare – but chances are that the owners do not know what they are and sell them as toy-teapots at a lower price than they deserve.

I got myself a nice custom repaired pot once on ebay, qing dynasty with the repairs done in Europe around the same time. Unfortunately a tad too large, so only good for Darjeeling or black teas. Will try to dig out some images.

[.m.]

Europe is a good place to be looking for antiqued porcelain. There's been a lot of chinese and japanese porcelain imported to western Europe in the second half of 19th century and in the early 20th for the growing middle class with then a fashionable interest in orientalism. These pieces were often heavily decorated and often meant mainly for showcase. While most antique stores in western Europe have a couple of porcelain ware from this period, it is indeed much harder to find something useful. One of the most common things are eggshell thin western style cups with a handle and a saucer produced in Japan. Those few I've tried had their rim unglazed for some reason (it might have been originally covered with a golden enamel that wore off), making them distinctly unpleasant to use. Also they were way too fragile to be practical. I think their extreme thinness and translucency was mainly a conversational point with a little benefit. Occasionally some gaiwans and tepots can be found too.

[Brent D]

Heres my daily cup.
I believe it to be japanese from the 70s or 80.

[Brent D]

Heres a pot I found. Nothing fancy. Probably 90s from china, but its 120 ml which seems hard to find.

[gatmcm]

Got a couple cups recently for cheap at an antique shop, this one is from macau, I'm guessing 70s or 80s, you can find a lot of oldish canton stuff in Portugal, this kind of stuff was common as wedding gifts and such back then so a lot of it ends up at antique shops, often for cheap.

20180323_154042.jpg (148.4 KiB) Viewed 42082 times

20180323_154133.jpg (145.28 KiB) Viewed 42082 times

[debunix]

Some very pretty pieces there.

[Brent D]

Came across this gaiwan. Similar style to my teapot. Can anyone guess decade?

[gatmcm]

Came across this gaiwan. Similar style to my teapot. Can anyone guess decade?

Nice, style looks very similar to the one of the other cup I got though the craftmanship on the gaiwan looks better, might mean its more modern, or just better quality, I'll leave it to the experts :

20180323_154223.jpg (108.24 KiB) Viewed 42064 times

20180323_154231.jpg (114.93 KiB) Viewed 42064 times

20180323_154311.jpg (112.59 KiB) Viewed 42064 times

[.m.]

Nice, style looks very similar to the one of the other cup I got though the craftmanship on the gaiwan looks better, might mean its more modern, or just better quality, I'll leave it to the experts :

Nice old handpainted cup. The gaiwan on the other hand looks printed and modern. Dont know the decade. Same design, but quite different.

[Hmm]

gatmcm's hand painted rice pattern bowl is likely first half of the 20th century, while Brent's gaiwan is no earlier than the mid 60s. I think it's probably anywhere from the 60s to 70s. I don't think they were outlining with red after that, but I'm not entirely sure. If I remember right rice grain pattern didn't exist until just around the turn of the 20th century.

[gatmcm]

gatmcm's hand painted rice pattern bowl is likely first half of the 20th century, while Brent's gaiwan is no earlier than the mid 60s. I think it's probably anywhere from the 60s to 70s. I don't think they were outlining with red after that, but I'm not entirely sure. If I remember right rice grain pattern didn't exist until just around the turn of the 20th century.

Oh really? Didn't think it was that old especially since I payed like 2 euro for it, glad to hear!

[Brent D]

Awesome find! Glad you shared. Looking at the both of them together really points out the differences.

[Hmm]

gatmcm's hand painted rice pattern bowl is likely first half of the 20th century, while Brent's gaiwan is no earlier than the mid 60s. I think it's probably anywhere from the 60s to 70s. I don't think they were outlining with red after that, but I'm not entirely sure. If I remember right rice grain pattern didn't exist until just around the turn of the 20th century.

Oh really? Didn't think it was that old especially since I payed like 2 euro for it, glad to hear!

Yeah, the wanyu mark at the bottom supposedly means that it could have been made anywhere from the 1920s to 1970s. I would hedge more on the early half of that because it's hand painted and the flower pattern inside the bowl. Standard PRC era bowls are always printed rather than handpainted. The bowls don't go for too much, but for 2 euros, that's surely a bargain. Are those red shou characters inside overglazed or underglazed?

[gatmcm]

Yeah, the wanyu mark at the bottom supposedly means that it could have been made anywhere from the 1920s to 1970s. I would hedge more on the early half of that because it's hand painted and the flower pattern inside the bowl. Standard PRC era bowls are always printed rather than handpainted. The bowls don't go for too much, but for 2 euros, that's surely a bargain. Are those red shou characters inside overglazed or underglazed?

The red marks as well as the gilded ones are over glaze, I'm a bit weary about using it because of them, I am a bit afraid of the paint leaching chemicals

Edit: after passing my nail over the gilded characters I'm not so sure they are over glaze, it feels smooth, the red characters are definitely over though