NON-DESTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS OF 'ORIGINAL' SONG DYNASTY GUAN WARES AND LATER IMITATIONS FROM THE PALACE MUSEUM COLLECTIONS, BEIJING

Fifty‐eight porcelain samples in Guan ware style from the collections of the Palace Museum in Beijing were analysed using non‐destructive ED‐XRF. These included 40 vessels that were traditionally ascribed as Guan wares of the Song Dynasty, and 18 vessels traditionally ascribed as imitation Guan ware...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Archaeometry 2012-12, Vol.54 (6), p.955-973
Main Authors: MIAO, JIAN-MIN, LV, CHENG-LONG, LI, HE, CHEN, TIE-MEI
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Art and archaeology
Asia
AUTHENTICITY
China
ED-XRF
False detection
Generalities
GLAZE COMPOSITION
IMITATION SONG GUAN WARES
Laboratory technics
Methods
Methods of observation
Museums
NON-DESTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS
Provenance
Research principies
Song dynasty
SONG GUAN WARES
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Fifty‐eight porcelain samples in Guan ware style from the collections of the Palace Museum in Beijing were analysed using non‐destructive ED‐XRF. These included 40 vessels that were traditionally ascribed as Guan wares of the Song Dynasty, and 18 vessels traditionally ascribed as imitation Guan wares, made during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The purposes of this study were: (1) to cross‐check the traditional identification of these wares with the new classification based on their chemical compositions; and (2) to carry out a provenance study of the authentic Song Guan wares—that is, to compare the chemical compositions of the authentic Song Guan wares with those of the shards unearthed from the known Guan ware kilns of the Song Dynasty. This study shows that: (1) the chemical compositions of the glaze are significantly different between the Song Guan wares and the imitation wares—among the 58 wares tested, seven are likely to have been misidentified by the traditional method; and (2) the glaze compositions of the authentic Song Guan wares themselves are not homogeneous, and they can be divided into three groups. The provenance of these groups was briefly investigated.
ISSN:0003-813X
1475-4754
DOI:10.1111/j.1475-4754.2012.00669.x