How to examine Chinese porcelain

Begin with a complete set of views: front, back, profile, interior, base, and foot. Add a raking-light photograph across the glaze and at least one image with a ruler. These views let a reader separate form, surface, scale, and condition instead of guessing from a single polished image.

Read the evidence as a chain. The exposed body at the foot can show texture and firing colour; the glaze can show pooling, wear, bubbles, or later restoration; decoration can reveal whether pigment sits under, in, or over the glaze. None of these observations alone establishes a kiln, workshop, or date.

Treat provenance claims separately from visual observations. A named kiln town, workshop, collection history, invoice, or excavation record is useful only when the record can be checked. If the available evidence supports material and technique but not age or origin, state that limit explicitly.