Published April 16, 2026
The single most-asked question about Chinese vases is what the stamps on the bottom mean. This guide walks through the four kinds of marks you will find on a Chinese vase, what each one tells you about age and origin, and the eight diagnostic checks that move a piece from "unknown" to "datable."
The single most-asked question about Chinese vases — by inheritors, estate-sale buyers, and first-time collectors — is: what do the stamps on the bottom mean? This guide walks through the four kinds of marks you will find on a Chinese vase, what each one tells you about age and origin, and the diagnostic checks that move a piece from "unknown" to "datable."
The four kinds of stamps you will see
Painted reign marks. Six characters (occasionally four) painted in cobalt blue or red enamel under the glaze, naming an emperor and reign. The format reads top-to-bottom, right-to-left: 大清乾隆年製 = "Made in the year[s] of the Qianlong reign of the Great Qing dynasty." These are the canonical imperial Chinese porcelain marks.
Impressed seals. Square or rectangular intaglio stamps pressed into the clay before firing. Most common on pottery (Yixing teapots, Jun ware, Cizhou) but occasionally found on porcelain too. Read in seal script, usually identifying a maker, kiln, or studio.
Hall marks. Painted, similar to reign marks in style and placement, but naming a private studio rather than an imperial reign. Common late-Qing examples include 慎德堂 (Daoguang) and 大雅斋 (Cixi). Hall marks indicate a high-status private commission.
Modern factory codes. Republican-era (1912–1949) shop marks like 江西景德鎮 + a workshop name; PRC-era (1949–1980) numbered factory codes; post-2000 artist studio seals. These are commercial identifiers rather than imperial authenticators.
Reading what's there
The diagnostic process for any Chinese vase stamp is structured. Work in this order:
First, identify the family. Is it painted or impressed? Are the characters reading top-down or stamped square? Is it on the foot ring or the body? This places the mark in one of the four families above.
Second, transcribe the characters. Even if you cannot read Chinese, you can match the characters against published references. The two most useful are Christie's online porcelain marks reference (free) and Gerald Davison's The Handbook of Marks on Chinese Ceramics (the standard reference book, available in most art-library systems). Both are organised by reign for fast visual matching.
Third, assess the calligraphy quality. Genuine imperial reign marks were painted by court calligraphers — strokes have weight variation, characters are confident and slightly imperfect, the spacing between characters is loose. Reproductions tend to be too even and too uniform. This is the single most reliable diagnostic for telling real reign marks from later imitations.
Fourth, cross-check the body, glaze, and foot. As covered in our guide to identifying Chinese porcelain marks, the mark alone is not enough — the body composition, glaze characteristics, and foot rim profile must all match the era the mark claims. A genuine Qianlong-marked vase has Qianlong-era clay, glaze, and foot. A Republic-era tribute Qianlong vase has Republic-era body characteristics under a Qianlong mark.
Common patterns by vase type
Tall vases (花瓶, 梅瓶, 玉壺春瓶) — typically painted reign marks on the underside, occasionally hall marks on high-end pieces. Most commonly Kangxi, Qianlong, Daoguang, or Guangxu reign marks. Tribute marks are rampant — most tall vases marked Qianlong are not Qianlong.
Brush pots (筆筒) — most often unmarked or with very small seal-script artist signatures. Many genuine Qing imperial brush pots carry a poetic inscription on the body rather than a reign mark on the foot.
Small bottles, snuff bottles — often have either a small four-character reign mark or no mark at all. Snuff bottles especially are often unmarked even when imperial.
Yixing-shape clay pots — three impressed seal marks (lid + foot + handle) is the standard. A Yixing-shape piece with a painted reign mark is almost certainly a twentieth-century decorative reproduction.
Why "Made in China" doesn't mean what you think
If your vase has 中国 ("China") or "MADE IN CHINA" in capitalised English on the foot, it was made for the export market, almost certainly post-1900. Chinese export porcelain has been required to carry a country-of-origin mark in English under various trade agreements since the 1890s. The mark itself dates the piece — a vase with "MADE IN CHINA" in English cannot be earlier than 1891 (the McKinley Tariff Act, which required country-of-origin labelling on imported goods to the United States).
This is helpful: an English country-of-origin mark immediately rules out any pre-1891 attribution. Many inherited "antique" Chinese vases turn out to be early-twentieth-century export pieces, datable to 1891–1949 by this English mark.
When the stamp is missing
Many genuine Chinese vases carry no mark at all. This is especially true for export pieces, folk wares, and rural-kiln production. An unmarked vase is not automatically less valuable — many fine Song and Yuan dynasty pieces are unmarked, and major Yixing teapots from periods of war or political disruption carry minimal or absent seals.
The diagnostic for unmarked pieces is the body, glaze, foot, and decoration alone. A genuinely fine unmarked piece will be obvious to a specialist by these characteristics — the absence of a mark does not exclude high attribution. If you have an unmarked vase you suspect is significant, photograph the entire piece including foot and any glaze irregularities, and submit to a major auction house's free Asian-art valuation. They will identify it from the physical characteristics.
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