Names on the base: seals and marks on teaware

A mark is a text on an object, not a certificate#

A mark records a name or claim on a vessel. It may reflect a maker, workshop, patron, later homage or imitation. Its reading, date and authorship must be assessed separately with the whole object and its provenance.

Reading a mark well means separating two tasks: first, transcribing what the characters say, how they were made (incised, stamped, or painted), and where they sit on the vessel; second, comparing those features with documented museum or archaeologically excavated reference objects.

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Where is the writing, and what does it name? On a Jin-period Cizhou bowl the words 茶, 菓, 香 and 花 run around the inner wall, with 酒 (wine) in the centre. The characters are painted in brown. They name things, leaving both the maker and the bowl’s particular use open.^{Cat. 34 · pp. 106–107}

From bamboo-knife incision to stone-seal impression in Yixing#

Zhou Gaoqi places Shi Dabin in a leading position among Yixing potters and describes his move from larger to smaller pots after discussions of tea. The text also describes writing, knife-cutting and the use of seals; it should not be reduced to a universal rule that all early pots were incised and later pots stamped. Source ↗

鳴遠 and 陳鳴遠 are names found on objects associated with Chen Mingyuan. Incised writing and impressed seals can occur together; reading both does not by itself resolve an object’s date or attribution. Source ↗

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Why one teapot can carry marks in three places#

Marks on the base, handle and lid can name different contributors, but several marks can also belong to one maker. Position is something to record, not a universal rule for dividing labour. Compare the actual wording and the documented object.

A concrete example is Hong Kong Museum of Art C81.496: a straight-sided Mansheng pot bearing an 1815 inscription, an Amantuoshi seal and a Pengnian mark. Its record lets us distinguish a potter’s contribution from the studio name and the literary inscription, without treating every Mansheng-style pot as an original design. Source ↗ Base: 冰心道人; lid interior: 壽珍 or 程壽珍; beneath handle: 真記.

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Look at the underside of the blue-and-white ewer C81.136. The museum catalogue records the six characters 大明宣德年製 inside a double ring on the base. It assigns the ewer to the Xuande reign (1426–1435) and identifies its domed lid as a later replacement. The body and lid therefore need separate entries in a description of this object. (中國陶瓷茶具 (1991) · C81.136 · no. 85 · p. 196 (PDF 466))

Type-name marks ('Mengchen', 'Ruoshen') and Chaozhou shop seals#

孟臣 and 荊溪惠孟臣製 appear on small teapots across a long period. The inscription can be read without assuming the vessel was personally made by Hui Mengchen; later uses belong to the history of the mark too. 若深珍藏 is a porcelain-base inscription often discussed with small gongfu cups. Record the actual vessel or fragment before inferring its size and function: a marked base alone does not establish a cup’s capacity, kiln or exact date. Source ↗ Source ↗

Alongside generic 'Mengchen' marks, late-Qing and Republican workshops in Chaozhou Fengxi also stamped their own shop trademarks in relief on the base of hand-thrown red-clay pots, including '源茂製' (Yuanmao), '清和成記' (Qinghecheng), and Wu Yinggeng's double-gourd seal '寶成出品' (Baocheng).

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Imperial tribute marks on Song tea bowls#

On Jian ware, 供御 refers to imperial use and 進琖 to presenting bowls. A mark applied before firing can indicate intended supply; a kiln waster bearing it does not demonstrate delivery to the court. Transcription, find context and later reuse therefore need separate treatment.

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Reading a Mengchen comparison plate

Table 1 pairs fifteen vessels with inscriptions. Row B2 shows a handled pouring vessel and B3 a rectangular, footed vessel. A2 identifies its inscription image as a computer reconstruction. Read each row with its credit before drawing conclusions about the hand that made the piece.

荊溪朱泥：明清宜興朱泥壺研究 · 11 · PDF 13 · 表一