'Ruoshen Zhencang' cup mark
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.
On this page
若深珍藏
A closer look#
Taiwan’s National Museum of Natural Science records an excavated porcelain base, PTT-TM52, with 若深珍藏 from Bantoucun, context T8P3D L10. The recorded foot-ring is 40 mm across and 9 mm high. These are fragment measurements, not a whole cup’s capacity or a precise production date. Source ↗
Reading and placement#
- Reading (Simplified)
- 若深珍藏
- Reading (Traditional)
- 若深珍藏
- Pinyin
- Ruòshēn zhēncáng
- Technique
- painted
- Position
- base (inside the foot-ring)
What a mark does not tell you#
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.
How to read and check this mark#
Use the documented reading 若深珍藏 as the starting point. Do not silently substitute 若琛珍藏: a different character needs its own object or legible illustration. The excavated base cited above supports the inscription, but not an exact production place, a complete cup profile or a capacity.
Read the words in pairs. 珍藏 means to treasure or keep in a collection. The Chinese University of Hong Kong catalogues three small blue-and-white cups together under this four-character inscription. Their recorded width is 6.2 cm. The 40 mm measured on the excavated Taiwanese fragment is the diameter of the surviving foot ring, so the two measurements describe different parts. CUHK · 1999.0478
Sources#
- 陈宗懋 主编《中国茶叶大辞典》(2000)
- 李炳炎、林楠：《潮州茶器（1860—2020）》，暨南大学出版社，2022. ISBN 9787566832412.
Bibliographic correction: the library copy is by Li Bingyan and Lin Nan, Jinan University Press, 2022. The former authors, publisher, year and claim of a complete reading were incorrect. Correcting this record does not verify every inherited claim citing it; those claims require passage-level review.
- 芳茗遠播：亞洲茶文化展（清代蓋碗、臺灣與工夫茶器） ↗
Status and editorial notes sources cited
Sources are listed below. Their presence does not certify every claim; source-specific interpretations and unresolved questions are identified in the text. This page has not received independent expert approval.