MARKS AND SEALS
ON
CHINESE PORCELAINS
No trustworthy inference as to date of manufacture can be drawn from the mark or seal on a specimen of Chinese porcelain, for experts have never hesitated to forge either seal or mark when such a course might enhance the value of a piece. But where other distinguishing features are present in pâte, glaze, and decoration, the mark often serves as a conclusive indication of period.
There are various kinds of marks, but the principal are year periods and hall marks. As to the former, it should be explained that a year period means the era comprised in the reign of a Sovereign. Thus, when the Chien-lung period, or era, is mentioned, the reign of the Emperor Chien-lung is referred to. Sometimes the name of the year period is preceded by that of the dynasty, as Ta-Ming, "great Ming" (dynasty), or Ta-Tsing, "great Tsing" (dynasty), and usually two ideographs are added, namely nien chih (year make). Thus a full mark of date becomes, for example Ta-Tsing Chien-lung nien chih (made in the Chien-lung year-period of the Great Tsing). Very often, however, the dynasty is omitted, and, less frequently, the ideographs nien chih are not used. The year mark may be written in ordinary ideographs or in the seal characters. Speaking practically, year marks may be said to commence from the Ming dynasty.
The hall mark is distinguished by the character tang, which signifies "kiln" or "atelier". It furnishes no information, for a record of kilns and their dates does not exist, and even if such did exist, the student would still be confronted by the possibility that he has before him an imitation, not an original. Thus, such a hall mark as Ki-yuh-tang chih (made in the hall of rare jade) tells nothing except an atelier or kiln called Ki-yuh-tang existed at some time in some place, and that fine ware was produced there.
Scarcely deserving to be classed as marks, since they were never intended to have any distinctive character and must be regarded as purely ornamental additions, are various symbols, pictorial designs or inscriptions, congratulatory or appreciative, which occur on many specimens. The commonest are given below.
CYCLICAL MARKS.
One method of reckoning time in China is by cycles of sixty years, namely, the sexagenary cycle, which is constructed by combining the twelve signs of the zodiac (called for this purpose the "Twelve Terrestrial Branches"), with five "Celestial Stems", of each of which there is an "elder" and a "younger". Thus the elements of the composition are, in fact, twelve branches and ten stems, which, if combined in pairs, would give 120. But as each stem is combined with each alternate branch only, the result is sixty. The whole period of Chinese history since 2637 B.C.
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