Houjiacai refers to the practice of adding color to old porcelain, a form of forgery where new colors are added to plain or blue and white porcelain. The purposes of Houjiacai are twofold: firstly, to satisfy the taste for antiquity and secondly, to deceive collectors for economic gain by passing off modified pieces as genuine antiques.
Methods of Houjiacai
- Polishing and Reglazing: The old piece is polished to remove the glaze (commonly referred to as “deskinning”), and patterns are carved into the body. After reglazing and adding color, the piece is kiln-fired to create a patterned colored porcelain.
- Direct Color Addition: Old pieces are directly modified by adding new colors, such as applying a red glaze to a Chenghua blue and white plate or a green glaze to a Wanli blue and white plate, transforming them into red or green glaze blue and white porcelain.
- Color Filling: Damaged areas of the painted glaze are filled and repainted according to the original design, then kiln-fired again, often using red color filling.
- Lacquer Painting: Broken pieces or those with kiln cracks and glaze fissures are covered with lacquer-painted patterns to hide the flaws. Some pieces are entirely repainted with lacquer decorations.
- Color Addition on Plain Porcelain: Plain porcelain bodies from various dynasties are repainted to create new varieties such as Famille Rose, Doucai, Enamel, Sancai, Ink Color, and Gold Color.
Common Techniques and Examples
- Pattern Carving and Reglazing: Polished old pieces with carved patterns are reglazed and colored to produce patterned colored porcelain.
- Direct Color Addition: Adding colors directly to old pieces to create new varieties, such as applying red glaze to Chenghua blue and white plates or green glaze to Wanli blue and white plates.
- Color Filling: Filling and repainting damaged glaze areas and kiln-firing again, often using red filling.
- Lacquer Painting: Covering broken pieces or those with kiln cracks and glaze fissures with lacquer-painted patterns, or repainting with lacquer decorations.
- Color Addition on Plain Porcelain: Adding color to plain porcelain bodies from various dynasties to create new varieties such as Famille Rose, Doucai, Enamel, Sancai, Ink Color, and Gold Color.
Specific Practices
- Adding colors to plain white porcelain or blue and white porcelain from the Tang, Song, Yuan, Jin, Ming, and Qing dynasties.
- Painting enamel colors on plain white porcelain bodies from the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong periods of the Qing Dynasty.
- Adding Doucai designs to lightly outlined blue and white porcelain from the Ming and Qing dynasties.
- Painting Famille Rose on white porcelain from the Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, and Daoguang periods of the Qing Dynasty.
- Applying Sancai patterns to old unglazed bodies or pieces with removed glaze from the Ming and Qing dynasties and then kiln-firing again.
- Adding red and green colors to plain white or blue and white porcelain from the Ming Dynasty.
- Repainting gold patterns on plain glazed pieces with lost gold decorations from the Ming and Qing dynasties, such as those with celadon, dark blue, and spotted blue glazes, and then kiln-firing to repair damaged glaze or cover cracks with gold patterns.
Other Practices
Apart from adding colors, there are also practices of covering old pieces with various colored glazes, such as applying yellow glaze to Yongle white-glazed pieces, or green, turquoise, and egg yolk glazes to various white-glazed pieces from the Xuande, Chenghua, Hongzhi, Zhengde, Jiajing, and Wanli periods.
Due to the deceptive nature of Houjiacai, as it involves adding colors to genuine old pieces, collectors must exercise great caution in identifying these forgeries to avoid being misled.
