Exposed Sotheby's, Christie's, Bonham's, Authenticate EMPEROR HUIZONG'S Ru Ware COLLECTION

Emperor Huizong was Emperor from 1100 to 1126 Emperor Huizong abdicated His throne to his son. He was known for his promotion of Taoism and talents in poetry, painting, calligraphy and music. The Jin armies were closing in and eventually took over his Song Empire and he was captured 1127 and he died in captivity in 1135, from the wealthiest man in the world to a broken man. His vast collections were gather up and stored in large wooden crates and passed down through the centuries. Since China has opened up in the 90s many old collections have reached the market place. My Imperial Ru ware collection comes from Huizong's personal collection.

During Emperor Huizong reign he decided to commission the Ru Kiln to produce wares for himself and his court because they were giving the finest Imperial tribute wares to him out of all the kilns. The Ru Kiln Imperial tribute wares that were given to Emperor Huizong was the finest wares the Ru Kiln was producing at that time, they don't have flaws and to make them really special they used several colors and added fire gilded bands on the rim and sometimes the base also. All tribute wares have the fire gilded bands that are around the rim and base and sometimes only the rim. These bands have extensive layered cuprite and malachite corrosion that only occurs in nature and can't be faked. (From the book Copper and bronze in art by David Scott The existence of malachite formation over a layer of cuprite is supported by analytical and metallographic studies is a good indication of the authenticity of an artifact.) This is more reliable than a TL test and every expert in the world uses this to determine authenticity of artifacts. This started some of the other kilns to add fire gilded bands on their Imperial tribute wares also.

Before the Ru Kiln was the actual Emperor's Official Imperial kiln they were producing wares that were quite small and have sporadic crackle and were fired on stilts leaving spur marks on the base. None of these wares have crushed agate in the glaze and often these wares had flaws. The severely flawed wares were destroyed, the wares that had severe firing flaws were sold to the population for a very cheap price, These are the same wares that are being sold by Sotheby's and Christie's, and often found in Museums that have Ru ware collections. The better wares were sold to the wealthy merchants and were quite expensive. The finest wares were given as tribute to the emperor. Emperor Huizong had been receiving all these flamboyant wares from all the kilns. Emperor Huizong decided to commission the Ru Kiln and make them the first official Imperial Kiln in China, to create wares that would be the 1st Official Imperial wares used exclusively for himself and his court in China's history. He wanted the wares to look similar to wares from past history they had to be Celadon color and look like they were carved from jade similar color to the Koryo wares from Korea. He didn't want the wares to have spur marks after he saw the prototypes, they started firing the wares flat in the kiln with unglazed foot rings. Emperor Huizong wanted them to use crushed agate in the glaze, crushed agate has only been used in Official Imperial Ru wares that were developed by Emperor Huizong. The 1st commissioned wares the biscuit has a grayish color that turns brown after firing some of the wares have marks scratched in the base most say Feng Hua among other marks, and they all have a cracked ice crackle. Crushed agate has only been used in Official Imperial Ru wares that were developed by Emperor Huizong. He wanted these wares to be larger than the Ru kiln tribute wares and very modest with simplistic refined forms often they used trumpet formed mouths, All of these Imperial 1st commissioned wares were used for the Emperor and his court only regardless of any flaws that occur in the firing process.