Chinese porcelain marks summary

 

The issue of Chinese marks can be summarized as follows:

• Most export porcelain was never marked at all. Actually, most of the porcelain for the domestic market also was never marked.
• Before the middle of the 19th century almost all marks were hand-painted. This means there will be some irregular features as most handmade things have.
• From around middle of the 19th century red stamps were often used.
• From the beginning of the 1890s the word "CHINA", in English, in red and applied in red with a rubber stamp would have been present on many export items.
• From about 1919 "Made in China" would have been applied on many export porcelains.
• A very clean, regular mark looking like those used in western countries, is a sign that an item probably was produced much later in the 20th century, and is unlikely antique. However, this does not mean that china antiques porcelain marks that were hand-painted are all antique. Later copies and fakes also do have hand-painted marks. Even contemporary items may have hand-painted marks.
  
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