What should the inside of an authentic Moon Flask of the Yongle period resemble? Hints: should there be glaze "run" that looks like a so called brownish, hare's fur, but not so thick, and should there be glistening specks that have pooled at the bottom, but not a thick pool either and would the neck be added/applied? Help!!!
Hear is a picture if it works. If not, sorry, will try again.
Sorry guys. Hear is a pic of the whole vase, one side.
Hello, The images are really really small to give an opinion. But 99% of the times this type of vases a re modern fakes...
Sorry about the small images, not sure how to make them bigger. Had to make them smaller to be able to be accepted by the site. Thanks for your input though! :)
Hi Shepard, if you could post a picture of the entire bottom at an angle and a close up of the decoration, and any imperfections in the glaze, rust spots, glaze contractions, these photos should be clear and taken under natural light, this is important for determining age.
Thanks Stan,
I will work on this today. Had planned on taking pics with indirect natural light of different areas of the vase today anyway. May not be able to send until later or maybe even tomorrow. Look forward to your thoughts when I send them. There are rust spots, one contacture as far as I can tell. I will do my best on the photos as I am taking them with my cell phone and then have to re-size them in my computer to fit the 200 limit to send them. Hope I can give you guys some excellent pics. May have to send them one at a time if that is alright? Thanks for your time, appreciate it!!! :)
Okay here goes. I took these today. I have resized them until they are 200 or less. Let me know if there is anything I can do to make them better, aside from steadying my hands, ;) as I will try to do whatever will help. The base pictures came out a little light but not too much. The color is more of a buff, beige, yellowish, brownish, pinkish, well I guess we can just forget that :), anyway there are some of rust spots? convex area on foot? heap and pile? delicacy of incised decoration? etc, etc. Will send one by one. Sorry for the inconvenience! And, these may not help at all. The last one is me trying to get a picture of the bubbles through out the glaze. They are extremely fine, minute and dense. Hopefully you will be able to see them or in other pics. Thanks so much. Hope to hear from you soon! :)
Here are somemore. Maybe rust spots?
Here is heap and pile?
Here is the base: Only good one I got. Hope it is good enough.
Here is concave area on foot of dragon and maybe more rust where neck meats shoulder?
some of decoration and close ups: Possible rust out a little form the nostrils?
More of base and what ever I did not post. The last I tried to get of the minute bubbles. The vase is loaded with them. sort of gives the decoration a "soft" look. Had to take these with a magnifying glass and am still not sure if you will see anything or not. Thanks again, let me know what else I can do to make these better.
Sorry had to take off base as it was too big. Can resize if you want. :/
I think I can make these bigger!!! I'll try. but let me know if you think it will be a waste of my time! Thanks.
Also, the rust spots are more of a brown moving into a yellowish sort of color. But definitely different from the blue and white. And, the bubbles are only discernible with a magnifying glass. I didn't even notice them until I was looking for other things, ie: rust, blurry underglaze, heap and pile etc. Okay, I will stop for now and leave everyone alone! :) :) :)
Hi Shepard, thanks for the additional photo's, this is a very nice decorative vase, but the foot rim points to a modern piece, not very old.
Thanks Stan,
Could you tell me something about the foot rim that makes it a modern piece. Am just learning about this stuff and would greatly appreciate your input! ie I don't even know what a "rim" is!!! lol :) Seriously I don't. Thanks Stan
Oh, also, do they make these in separate sections. There is a "seam" and not a particular good one I might add, that runs parallel to the base half way up the vase?
This sort of item is not suitable for evaluation in this type of online forum. The pictures do just not have enough resolution and do not show enough details.
If authentic, its value would likely be at least in the tens of thousands, but most what is for sale are probably fakes. Top items located in museums or high-priced auctions always are used for making considerable numbers of copies.
A hands-on inspection by an auction house or museum would be more appropriate, because these are more likely to have seen or handled a genuine one.
Please note however that the partial picture of the bottom shows a foot rim and bottom glaze that do not look at all like Ming dynasty wares. To me the base looks more like a 20th century item, I'm afraid.
I would try to find out if the base of such an item could look that way. Usually I would expect a flat foot rim (not rounded) and quite a different glaze if any.
Thank you for your advise. I appreciate it very much. My pictures are lousy for sure and I won't bother anyone anymore since this is not the correct forum. I apologize. I did not know. I took them with a magnifying glass attached to my cell phone with duct tape!! lol Just wanted some answers and I got them, thanks to you all. I just would like to say that the bottom of the vase is flat. Where the glaze from the vase meets the table is where the non glazed part of the very bottom "rim" sets, if you can even call it a "rim" or foot, and it is flat. The indent is on the inside of the very base and has sandy particles that can be felt and rough spots in areas along the inside of the indent. I will take your advice and take it to our Museum at the Capital in our state. And, I am sorry for taking your time. Once again, I thank you most kindly for your valuable time and consideration. Thanks I learned a lot! :)