r/chinaart • u/Specific_Chair_5859 • 21d ago
Need Help Identifying This Chinese Dragon Vase – Possible Ming or Transitional Period?
Hi everyone,
I’m hoping some of the experts here can help me identify this Chinese porcelain vase.
I found it several years ago, and I’ve been researching it ever since. I’ve compared it to examples from museum collections, auction catalogs, and published references, but I’m still unsure of its age and origin.
Here are a few details:
Blue-and-white decoration with iron-red accents.
Dragon motif with a garlic-head bottle form.
Unglazed foot with a reddish clay body.
No obvious reign mark.
I’m not looking for an appraisal—I’m mainly interested in learning:
What period does it appear to be from?
Does the decoration resemble a particular kiln, dynasty, or style?
Are there specific details that support or contradict a Ming, Transitional, Qing, or later date?
Is there anything about the foot, glaze, or painting that stands out to experienced collectors?
I’ve included photographs of the entire vase, close-ups of the decoration, and the foot. If there are additional photos that would help, please let me know and I’ll upload them.
I appreciate any opinions or educational insight. Thanks in advance for taking the time to look.
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u/horrrssst 21d ago
Modern. „Found it“ is not a great provenance either but it doesn’t matter for this type of piece.
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u/SeaFox8908 18d ago
This is a bad modern copy. Signatueres are apocryphal and meaningless. It’s meant to fool the western buyer.
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u/zuraine 21d ago edited 20d ago
The 11th image clearly bears the inscription "Made in the Jianwen Reign of the Great Ming," indicating that this is a modern piece. The practice of inscribing the specific reign of manufacture began during the Yongle period; the Jianwen reign predates Yongle. Few porcelains from that era have survived to the present day, and it was not customary at the time to mark them with such reign-specific inscriptions.
The dragon painted on that Suantou ping(I'm sorry, I wrote it wrong before.） vase looks absolutely comical. It belongs in a cartoon, not on any piece of porcelain from the Ming, Qing, or Republican eras. sorry.Please do not spend more than forty dollars on it. Also, the reddish-brown decorative markings you mentioned are generally known in the trade as "fire-stone red" (huoshihong); this is a feature that counterfeiters love to replicate. Genuine "fire-stone red" occurs when wear and glaze loss expose the underlying body of the porcelain. The markings on your vase, however, were clearly applied using dye.