Even if “There’s nothing there.”
People often post photos of Chinese ceramics online, asking for help identifying and dating them. Usually it’s one picture, maybe two, but one thing is for certain: If there are no characters or mark on the bottom, there’s little chance they’ll post a picture of it.
Then, if the date of manufacture isn’t clear from the posted picture someone will usually ask for a picture of the bottom. That’s when the original poster will reply, “There’s nothing there.”
What they mean is there’s nothing written there. But there is! There always is. See, the bottom of an old ceramic often contains the best clues for dating it, even if there’s no writing at all.
Questions we ask when looking at the bottom of a ceramic to help approximate the period it was made include:
- Is the bottom flat or concave?
- Does it have a foot rim?
- Is the foot rim hand cut?
- What shape is the foot rim?
- Is the foot rim stepped?
- What color is the unglazed clay?
- What consistency is the clay?
- Is the bottom glazed or unglazed?
- How neatly is the bottom glaze applied?
- Is there any kiln grit?
- Are there marks left from kiln furniture?
While these questions help in dating ceramics, no single question ever contains the full answer. Dating antique ceramics is never of matter of seeing and confirming one aspect of it. Instead, all aspects of it need to be confirmed and compared to known examples. Nevertheless, the bottom is often the best place to start.
The hand-cut ridges seen in this foot suggest that it’s not a modern vase. The granular consistency of the clay visible (on the foot) suggests it’s not of the Kangxi period, even though that’s what the blue and white decorative pattern wants you to believe. Knowing these two things, we can deduce that it’s Kangxi Revival period of the late 1800s, and that’s indeed what it is.
Only one of the pieces above has a ‘foot’. Can you tell which one?
