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Apr 12, 2011
 Education
by: Stan

Hi Peter, I have got to thank you again for all your good information and knowledge of Chinese porcelain, I will be on the look out for these items," Right", you never know when you just might stumble onto one of the treasures of the far east, however I still have a quite a few items, that I would like to discuss with you. I feel like I am in School again, thank for your web site its is very informative. From Stan.

Stan, you are welcome!
No need to thank me...it is actually a pleasure discussing these things with someone interested in details. And, I profit from such exchanges too, actually, as I need to lsort or ogically arrange what I already know. This often leads to better clarity in view to the facts. It also allows me to be more critical towards my own collecting experience. :-)

Peter
Apr 12, 2011
 vase repair
by: peter

No Stan, I wouldn't have it restored, at least not at this time.
What the Chinese pay a lot for now aren't these vases. They are much too common. The Qing items valued highly are mostly 18th century, or earlier, and with period marks. That concurs with the three reigns when quality was at its peak (Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong).
Apr 12, 2011
 repair
by: Stan

Hi Peter, you are right, the repair looked to me like a do it your self repair, in spots you could see where the paint started to run, not real bad but bad enough, they did a great job on matching the color, but they did spray on top of the vitreous glaze; Good word, and so there is a shadow where the new meets the old, If I thought I could get a lot of money for this vase, then I would have it professionally repaired, do you think it would be worth the effort? it is amazing what the Chinese are willing to pay for their porcelain, thanks again Peter, from Stan.
Apr 11, 2011
 repair
by: peter

Stan, what you describe sounds like a botched or unfinished restoration to me. Basically, the spraying is normal, but done properly you would have difficulties detecting it.

Let's say it was a clean break that was repaired properly, without the recreation of missing fragments, then there are two options.
Either the glue line is left as is, if it does not diminish appearance much, esthetically.
The other is to repaint and reapply the glaze. This may involve grinding the vitreous layer down to the ground color, in the area of the mended break.
The restorer would then match the ground color and spray it on. This is done with an artist's airspray gun. With small areas it may be done with a brush. This should result in a smooth appearance.
After that the decoration is reapplied, if any, and on top all this the transparent glaze is added. I believe most restorers won't refire this, but I know it is done occasionally. Depends probably on the circumstances.
Usually, if this process is done by an experienced restorer, you may have difficulties seeing any repair. Reapplying the transparent glaze layer is probably very important as the repair will be less visible through it.

Now, what you mention seems to me as if the painting was done directly on top of the vitreous glaze layer, instead of following the above procedure. Is that right?
In that case, because of the fine vitreous layer (glass layer) between the top paint and ground color the paint will be visible even if it is a good match. This is because the top layer of paint projects a very fine shadow line along its edge through the transparent glaze, unto the ground color layer below the glaze.
If that is what happened, I would not scrape it all off, unless you are willing to pay for a restorer to finish the job properly and cover it all in glaze.



Apr 11, 2011
 large qing vase 2
by: Stan

Hi Peter, I looked down the mouth at the top with a flashlight and you can clearly see ware the glaze has separated from the porcelain underneath the paint, however I would have to scrape the paint off in the inside of the vase, do you think that would be a good idea, it would not be viewable from the outside?, thanks from Stan.


Stan,
Don't do it. There is no point in making it worse, unless it is very valuable and you intend to hire a professional restorer. Not a very economical solution with this type of vase, I think.

Peter
Apr 11, 2011
 large qing vase 2
by: Stan

Hi Peter on this vase at the top, it was broken and repaired, the paint, even though it seems to be a good match in color can be scraped off and that is good news, the bad news is that they painted the inside top and outside, I scraped off the paint that was at the top of the mountain seen, it looked like it was sprayed on and a mist ended up on the top of the seen, it scrapes off pretty easy with a razor, the paint also looks like it was brushed on around one of the ears on one side, the break was in the back at the top and did not alter the front in any way other than the over spray that I scraped off also at the top ware the paint has come off on its own you can see age marks and you can see age marks ware the paint is thinner, from Stan.
Apr 10, 2011
 vase
by: peter

The decoration of this vase is rather typical. The decoration type itself was made from mid Qing dynasty onwards.
The whole bottom picture may be important in such a vase. There will be many contractions or unevenness of the bottom, usually.
The collar and top rim, mouth, as well as the inside will show age signs if it is late Qing.
You will likely find also a lot of glaze contractions inside the mouth, down the inside of the neck. Usually, they are darkened by dirt inside. In the crevices of the ear you will often also find some firmly lodged dirt.

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