A 200-year-old Qing Dynasty plate with a potter's 'moment of inspiration'?

This is the plate that is considered by antiquities experts to beuniqueat least in Nghe An up to now.

When it comes to the value of antiques, antique collectors often say: “First is the shape, second is the skin, third is the integrity, fourth is the age”. That means the object must first have a beautiful shape, then the glaze, the integrity of the object, and the age is ranked last as long as it is 100 years old or older. However, there are two more factors to consider, which are the “status” of the object and its uniqueness. If the object was used by a king or lord, it is very rare. Uniqueness means that the object must be very unique, or only one of a kind, with no second one.

Front of the plate depicting Stone Bamboo. Photo: Ngoc Phuong

Back to the ancient Qing Dynasty plate belonging to the "Stone Bamboo" painted plate line, the bottom of the plate has a drawing of a bird.carp, if the plate does not have a carp painted on it, this plate is very ordinary like hundreds of thousands of other plates painted with "Thạch Trúc" which are the "street plates" (common) used by families with a relatively good standard of living in our country in the past. This type of plate was produced by pottery kilns in China before the 19th century, the glaze and the embryo are very good. Thanks to the superior quality of the soil and production level, Vietnamese people often order this type of plate from China. The Nguyen Dynasty ordered high-class ceramics with indigo glaze, more sophisticated drawings, often called "ky phong" items.

Normally, the plate of the “Thạch Trúc” line is usually blank, or has Chinese characters written on it, which is the name of the pottery kiln that produced the plate. However, the plate that the collector in Vinh City owns has a picture of a carp painted on it. Not only is it absent on the “Thạch Trúc” line, but it is also absent on all ancient plates of other lines and centuries.

The back of the plate has a carp drawing. Photo: Ngoc Phuong

Many long-time antique collectors have interesting explanations as to why an ancient potter did not write an inscription on this plate or left it blank, but instead painted a carp.

Antique collector Dang Hung in Truong Thi ward - Thanh Hoa city commented: "Maybe this was a moment of improvisation by the potter, spontaneously drawing a carp on the rim of the plate. Or maybe in the process of painting a series of plates, there was some ink glaze left, so the potter was sorry for that bit of ink glaze and drew a carp on the rim of the plate, that's why it created the uniqueness!".

"The carp wagging its tail to eat algae also represents the potter's wish for a prosperous life," added antique collector Nguyen Duc Vuong in Hung Nguyen district.

The rim of the "Thach truc" plate line is often written in Chinese characters, or left blank. Photo: Ngoc Phuong

Mr. Dao Tam Tinh - Vice President of the AssociationLam River Antiquitiessaid: “In addition to the randomness of the artisan drawing on the plate, it could be due to the origin of the family, the family from the fishing profession has its own pottery kiln. The ancient plate often has the following inscriptions: kiln brand, artisan's symbol, year... or some event. Like this plate for example, it could have been made on December 23, the day the Kitchen God returns to heaven, in general, it is very unique”.

“Maybe the artisan made this plate on the 23rd of December, the day the Kitchen Gods return to heaven, so he spontaneously drew a carp on the plate…”

Mr. Dao Tam Tinh - Vice President of Song Lam Antiquities Association

However, all of this is just speculation, because only the artist who painted this plate can answer, and the potter passed away over 200 years ago!

The moment of improvisation of an ancient potter drawing a carp on the plate unintentionally created the uniqueness of this ancient plate. Photo: Ngoc Phuong

The origin of this plate collection is also very coincidental, in 2020, an antique collector in Trung Son commune - Do Luong bought a series of antique plates from a scrap seller. Each plate costs only a few tens of thousands of dong. While cleaning the plate, he was extremely surprised to discover the rim of a plate shaped like a carp. He had seen many carp-shaped plate faces, but only now had he seen a carp-shaped plate rim. Because he had collected tens of thousands of this type of plate.

The owner and this unique plate. Photo: Ngoc Phuong

Seeing this, this person immediately posted it on the Internet. Many antique collectors from North to South were amazed by this uniqueness, because they had also purchased this type of disc for decades with tens of thousands of discs, only this disc could be found now.