SEVERAL years ago, Chen Guocheng was still a rookie in porcelain collection. But now he is a professional collector with a good domestic reputation. He specializes in collecting imperial chinaware from the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.

"In early 2009 when I had just finished my house decoration, I thought I needed some artwork to furnish the rooms," Chen says. "I happened to know a friend who is familiar with Suzhou's antique shops. With his company, I did my first purchase - I spent more than 200,000 yuan (US$32,000) on a square vase from the Qianlong period (1711-1799)."

"I brought the piece to experts at a museum. They told me it was genuine but the price was still a little too high," Chen says.

"However, they found I was pretty interested in porcelain and suggested I start collecting ancient porcelain chips."

With the help of the museum's experts, Chen learned the key points of identifying chinaware through analyzing thousands of porcelain chips from all over the country. He soon bought some folk chinaware made in the Ming and Qing dynasties from antique market and collectors.

But, he soon realized he would achieve nothing if he kept collecting without a purpose. Besides, he could not afford such a big collection. "I was confused at that time," he says.

A museum expert introduced Chen to Qian Weipeng, a famous chinaware collector who used to be the director of the British Office of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. At Qian's suggestion, Chen eventually decided he would focus on collecting imperial chinaware from the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Chen is fairly lucky, not only because he has met a good teacher, but also a good time for collection.

When he began to collect porcelain in 2008, the market of art collection had just started to recover. Many lost pieces of imperial porcelain returned to China from abroad.

Since that time, Chen has visited many markets and antique shops. With the help of Qian, museum experts and other professionals, Chen has purchased dozens of excellent porcelains in recent years and has a good reputation among collectors.

Chen spends almost all his spare time appreciating his collection or reading books about chinaware. He will immerse himself into books after buying a new piece, trying to find out its cultural content.

As a businessman, he only has two kinds of books on his bookshelf - enterprise management and ancient Chinese porcelains.

"When I'm alone, I'd like to get a cup of tea and light a cigarette, quietly appreciating my collection, just like having a conversation with our ancestors," Chen says.

In the future, Chen hopes to open a small display pavilion so that others can share his knowledge on chinaware collection and help to preserve this traditional art.

The beauty of porcelain

China is the hometown of porcelain. The name of the country "China" is just from chinaware. The earliest chinaware appeared around 1600 BC during the Shang Dynasty. For a long time the collectors have treasured porcelain for its beautiful patterns and complicated craft. Its monetary value depends on various factors including age, design and craftsmanship. There are many porcelain collectors living in Jiading. Although they knew little about porcelain at beginning, now they can easily distinguish counterfeits. Zhao Shengtu, secretary-general of the Jiading Collectors' Association, shares some stories and tips about porcelain collection. The articles presented here are part of the excellent pieces owned by the local collectors in Jiading.

Expert tips on collecting chinaware

With the artwork market thriving nowadays, chinaware collectors have a great chance to pick out some wonderful pieces.
However, they need to be careful as a mistake can be costly. Some pieces are worth millions of yuan, but a counterfeit is worth practically nothing. Here are some tips that help in identifying genuine porcelain.

The first is modeling.
Influenced by different lifestyles and aesthetic standards in different periods, chinaware became more complicated over the years.
For example, porcelain made in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) tended to be plump, while it was thin in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), thick in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), elegant in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and complex in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
Sometimes collectors know roughly how old a piece is due to its modeling.

The second is body and glaze.
This is the flesh and blood of chinaware. Again, this changed over the centuries as preferences differed from dynasty to dynasty.
For example, the bottom of chinaware in the Yuan Dynasty was usually rough and covered with black impurities while in the Ming Dynasty the bottom was smooth with less impurities.
The colors and thickness of glaze also differed through the years.
In the Ming and Yuan dynasties the glaze usually looked light blue and white.
In the Qing Dynasty, a whiter and smoother glaze was preferred.

The third is the decorative pattern.
Some patterns were produced only in specific time periods.

The fourth is inscription.
Official wares in the Ming and Qing dynasties and some folk wares had inscriptions at the bottom. Different dynasties had different styles and these are also used to help determine the age of a piece. However, since photographic and scanning technologies have developed rapidly from 1990s, inscriptions can now be faked so experts will consider other aspects when determining the age of the porcelain.

The fifth is hand feel.
It refers to how a piece of porcelain feels when you touch it. This requires a lot of experience from touching genuine pieces. Experts will note the weight, whether the glaze is mellow and whether the surface is smooth. Some experts can identify a counterfeit simply by touch.

Collecting and identifying porcelain requires lots of knowledge. It takes you a lot of time, and also it gives you a lot of fun.