Peach-bloom glaze is called cowpea red glaze in Chinese. A tiny change in the firing temperature or aerobic condition can create various color from mellowed grayish-pink to green, to intense red and dark red, or to a combinations of spots of black and/or green mingling in a red ground, as exemplified by this pot. These patterns are artistically interesting and treasured. Peach-bloom glazed porcelain is one of the most difficult porcelain to make. Thus peach-bloom porcelain was made primarily during Kangxi reign (1622-1722 AD), as small scholar objects primarily for imperial palace use. The shape of this pot is called Tai Bai Zwen (Tai Bai refers to the great poet Li Tai Bai). These wares have command extreme high value, due their artistically pleasing, their use by the imperial court, and their rarity. During late 19th and early 20th century, majority of them were acquired by major Western Museums; genuine ones hardly exist in private hands. Such high value unavoidably creates imitations during late Qing and in modern days in mainland China as well as Taiwan (where imitation artists can learn closely from the genuine samples in the Taipei’s National Palace Museum). Luckily, the imitations can be differentiated. The glaze covering the base and areas inside mouth rim of late Qing imitations is rougher, too white, too clear/ transparent, and glaring (?????????. The foot rims of late Qing imitations are also rougher. The modern imitations made in Taiwan are frightening realistic; even experts sometimes are cheated. But subtle differences exist. The modern imitations’ surface is often shinny (?????????) and perfectly even. The glazes are also more even in color, usually red; but the Kangxi’s is usually not very uniform in color, many with brown, black, and green spots. Using your finger to scrape the surface of modern imitations you get a sticky feeling like scraping newly made glass surface. The genuine Kangxi porcelain’s surface is not perfectly even and without giving the sticky feeling as you scrape it; rather you get a feeling like scraping a semi- or fully-polished jade surface. The glaze on modern imitations’ outer base is also more clear/whiter/transparent than the genuine. The genuine Kangxi porcelain’s counterpart has a pale bluish-green tin, close to the color of lake water-green (???)of Yin Chin wares of Song and Yuan, and has more minute bubbles/cloudy inclusions, visible under magnification, which make the glaze slightly milky. The modern imitations’ marks are usually more intense blue and closer to the surface of the glaze, as compared to the mellowed and pleasant blue that appears beneath the milky/cloudy glaze, showing a distant to the glaze surface (in Chinese connoisseurs’ term not piau foa (?? floating on the surface)). The imitations’ foot rims are too white; the genuine Kangxi porcelain’s usually appears pale grayish white and has some light brownish red dots that can be seen under magnification. The modern imitations of the same size are usually slightly lighter. The differences around the mouth rim and inside are even more dramatic and can be seen in the photos here (mouth rim of this pot) and by putting a probe light inside. From Dr. Robert I-San Lin (#2031), a senior Chinese artwork appraiser, whose grandfather was a major Chinese antique merchant in early 1900s. (Dr. Lin’s bio, in Journal of Authentication of Artworks, 2015, available). Brought to California in 1960s.
H. 8.8, dia. 13.6 cm; 557 grams.

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