Authenticated Chinese Porcelain For Sale
Buying Antique Chinese porcelain in Hong Kong
Hong Kong is as usually the Antique Chinese porcelain center of the world. Among the millions of pieces I found here my impression is that most is really ok of the earlier pieces - mostly pottery (1 out of 10 is a fake), while the opposite seems to be true regarding porcelain (9 out of 10 is a "fake" or at least not as represented). The prices here seemed to be pretty much the same here as in the rest of the world when lookin at the top quality prices. The Hong Kong dealers are well aware of the International prices, they read the same auction cataloges as everybody else, and what could be had cheap was as some put it just "crap".
Shops filled to the roof were found to be selling only late replicas and among whatever "old" early 20th century porcelain was presented as Yongzheng, etc.
A positive surprise was the Wah Tung China store, Hong Kong, we have been discussing earlier on the list, which turned out to be a perfectly legit manufacturer and seller of most seriously conceived replicas. I.e. nothing we should be concerned with as fakes - rather the contrary. My best recommendations, should you ever want to buy a nice - and clearly stated as such - replica.
The difference between their pieces was mostly in the style of the decorations. the brushwork was good but made by "another artist" then the originals. As for shapes, glazes , weights etc. no real efforts had been made to arrive at anything that would be concieved as a "fake". They were manufacturing and selling replicas and that's it and they were quite good at that. Besides, as compared to the fakes sold at our favourite internet auction site, these pieces was way too expensive to make it profitably. The Internet fakes comes from somewhere else.
Some true blue fake dealers (quite fun when spotted) were met with. They were selling difficult to spot early Ming pieces, clearly manufactured as fakes in China. This place we called "The fake master". So far as up until this shop I could not say there were anything unethical going on. The dealer was qite open about it and was quite happy selling whatever he had. Some low quality genuine pieces and 9 out of 10 whopping "fakes" with all intent to decieve - sold as was off the sidewalk - at US $50-100 before negotiations.
Hong Kong kiln
To my big surprise - due to my lack of knowledge - the Hong Kong Island itself turned out to have had an important porcelain kiln - with an considerably production - since at least the end of the Ming dynasty and active until the first decades of the 20th century. The porcelains made here are depending on the Guangdong (Canton) area, but are still showing some individual characteristics which might make it possibly to identify them as a group. The Kiln site is not wholly excavated and what finds so far has been made indicates a small number of shapes. Further investigations might turn up some interesting data.