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Dear All,
I have been trying to google it but cannot find a clear answer. I wonder what causes hairlines when there is no other damage?
Sometimes you see a chip with a related hairline which is , I think, caused by the impact. But sometimes you have a hairline running from the side of the plate without any damage. Is that also caused by some sort of impact or does the way it is stored it have something to do with it , like in the sun, or in a cold cellar ?
Thanks
Staartmees
Dear Staartmees,
the correct question should be: Why not all plates have hairlines? It is a sort of miracle that not all them have.
When a piece has been fired and cooled down, some strong internal stresses and tensions are accumulated.
Imagine just this: A porcelain, during firing, will shrink about 10 per cent. Then, if you think that a big plate will shrink 10% near the center and 10 per cent near the rim, you can figure out which strong stress are generated. In theory it should always crack.
Being these forces trapped within the piece, often they are near to the cracking point. Then, often either a small shot or a sudden changing in temperature are acting like a trigger.
Best regards
Giovanni
Dear Giovanni,
So you are saying that hairlines without damage are mostly caused by firing and not because of age /handling/storage ?
I thought they always appeared later as a rule...
Kind regards
Staartmees
Dear Staartmees,
evidently I have not been clear. They can appear suddenly anytime, even many years later.
But it all starts because of the internal stress due to the firing and cooling process. Being the ceramic a hard material, those forces will not dissipate in time. It is a permanent tension, like a compressed or extended spring.
When you are handling a perfect piece, you are indeed handling a perfect piece with an internal force that can be far or very near the breaking point. It is like having an internal spring. If the force of the internal spring is near to the level that can cause the splitting of the ceramic, in that condition anything, like aging, thermal shock or a mechanical shock of light intensity can act as a trigger, releasing the spring.
Giovanni
Dear Staartmess -
Giovanni is quite correct in his explanation of this. These glaze stress hairlines can occur decades or even centuries after the piece was originally fired.
The attached images are of an exceptional rare - only five other pieces are recorded - early 15th century copper-red dish, with dragons/clouds reserved in semi-silhouette, a ghost trace left from the gold decoration now worn off.
Note the glaze stress lines now present which must have developed many years later. A piece with such faults, if acquiring when originally fired, would have been instantly destroyed at the Imperial kiln site.
This dish is in a private collection, and I have had the great privilege of seeing and handling this piece - an exquisite object - even with these ‘faults’ ...
Stuart
Glaze fit is a naturally occurring event but is used as a way to obtain partial refunds by buyers claiming that it is a hairline.
Vic
Thanks Giovanni and Stuart.
It is clear now. But also somewhat worrying...everybody is chasing the perfect piece. Hairlines reduce the value substantially. When I read your explanation it means that could spend a lot of money for the perfect piece, to find out years later it developed a hairline...
Correct ?
So I would have paid a big amount for a perfect piece to see it being reduced because of the hairline.
Kind regards
Staartmees
Dear Staartmees -
What is perfection, and therefore the ‘perfect piece’, and what criteria is used to decide upon such?
It is very much an individual perception and, in regards to collectors and collecting in any field, what some are quite happy to accept when acquiring an object, others will not and therefore pass by ...
As to ceramics, as Giovanni has pointed out, due to the firing and cooling processes all pieces pieces have a degree of internal constant tensions ‘locked in’, which can be very near to, or far away from, the critical point when circumstances trigger that release, whatever those may be at that particular moment in time ...
As to the ‘perfect piece’ and individual perceptions of such, as an example I attached images and catalogue notes of a small Xuande mark/period vase sold at Sotheby’s London, 13th May 2015.
My own notes when viewing/handling as follows:-
‘5 glaze hairlines to interior of foot rim, two exterior glaze burst to side of neck and two further on shoulder/body, cobalt colour/tone is softer/lighter then catalogue images, inconsistencies within characters of mark due to cobalt tone’ ...
So far from the ‘perfect piece’ but, even with all the above ‘faults’, this vase sold for £3.3 million ‘hammer price’ - rather more then the estimate - and although at the ‘high end’ of the market, is just one example of what some are prepared to pay to acquire such an object whether ‘perfection’, or not ...
Stuart
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Kangxi vases, Kangxi dishes and chargers, Kangxi ritual pieces, Kangxi scholar's objects, Qianlong famille rose, Qianlong enamels, Qianlong period paintings, Qianlong Emporer's court, Fine porcelain of the Yongzheng period. Chinese imperial art, Ming porcelain including Jiajing, Wanli, Xuande, Chenghua as well as Ming jades and bronzes.
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