'Dabin' incised mark
大彬 and 時大彬製 are inscriptions associated with Shi Dabin. Compare the reading with an identified object and its find context: even early accounts distinguish making a pot from signing it.
On this page
大彬 / 時大彬製
Reading and placement#
- Reading (Simplified)
- 大彬 / 时大彬制
- Reading (Traditional)
- 大彬 / 時大彬製
- Pinyin
- Dàbīn / Shí Dàbīn zhì
- Technique
- incised
- Position
- Base on both illustrated pots
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.
Museum and excavated reference objects#
Read the monk’s-cap pot from its date to its signature. 萬曆丁酉年 supplies the year, which the catalogue equates with 1597, and 時大彬製 says “made by Shi Dabin”. On the melon-shaped pot, the three-column base inscription ends with just 大彬 after the cyclical date and festival reference 己酉重九. The catalogue identifies the year as 1609. The paired photographs make the difference between the long and short signatures visible. [2]
Later copies, tribute marks and workshop reuse#
- Zhou Gaoqi's 陽羨茗壺系 (c. 1640) records that Shi Dabin's leading student Li Zhongfang made pots that Shi signed with his own mark (俗傳大彬壺，亦有仲芳作而大彬署款者), and Zhang Pusheng (1994, p. 241) notes that because Shi Dabin's name stood highest among Ming potters, imitations bearing '大彬' marks were produced continuously from the late Ming through the Republic.3
Evidence and interpretation#
Zhou Gaoqi records pots made by Li Zhongfang and signed by Shi Dabin. This is a concrete reason to separate the maker from the signatory. The previously listed tomb dates and owners have conflicting identifications; they are not used here as securely verified benchmarks without the original excavation reports. Source ↗
Sources#
- 张浦生《明清紫砂茶具概述》(1994)
- Terese Tse Bartholomew, I-Hsing Ware (1977) · 1–2 · pp. 24–25 (PDF 26–27).
- 周高起《陽羨茗壺系》 (Ming, 1640s), Wikisource edition ↗
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.