Chinese Porcelain
Production Methods
Round Items:
Round items were thrown on the wheel. For a long time, at least
from the Yuan dynasty to the Qing dynasty, items were thrown in
two or more parts, which then were stuck together. Thus, jars,
vases, bottles, etc. should always have one or more horizontal
seams in the body of the item, which are clearly visible, often
this was or could not be removed on the inside. In many cases the
trace of a seam is also visible on the outside of the porcelain
body.
Square or Rectangular
Items:
(Early Chinese manufacturing methods before separable moulds
appeared)
The flat sides of the item, be it a vase, box, etc. would be
separately created by hand. They were then fit together.
Therefore, with older items you will often find that items are not
perfectly square or rectangular. A good point to check with older
items. Of course, very high quality items like imperial wares
would still have been made carefully enough so that everything was
perfect.
Protruding Ornaments
(Appliqués):
Manual:
In some cases these were carved into the background material, but
having a protruding ornament of limited size and shaving off all
of the remaining background was often time-consuming. Thus, from
very early on some of these ornaments were made by stucking the
clay unto the flat surface. They may then have been worked
on/carved further.
Moulds:
After moulds came into use ornaments would often have been moulded
together with the flat sides. In some cases that was all finished
this way, but with some the details of the ornaments would have
been worked on further.
With hand-moulding, especially with figurines, but also with some
rectangular or irregular shaped objects, finger imprints may be
found on the inside. If there are none, we have to always consider
the possibility that the item was made at a later time when
machine moulding/injection was possible at the specific kiln or
factory. Or, alternatively, the ornaments were stuck on later in
old fashion as appliqué.
Just to give an example -- Dehua kiln which is known for its
blanc-de-chine figurines and white wares, is known to have
introduced moulds in the 1930s, relatively late. If you have a
Dehua figurine that was moulded in two parts, then there is a good
chance that it is later than that. We can use this for dating
items.
Each kiln may have started using moulds at a different time.
This is not to say moulding started only in the 20th century. Some
moulded ornaments were already made a thousand years ago, but not
usually in closed or two-piece moulds.