A photo of "Mother of Porcelain" with an interpretation of its glazes and colors. (Photo from Weibo)
(ECNS) -- The photo of a 86 centimeter-tall vase with colorful glazing has become an online hit after it was displayed on popular show "National Treasure" that focuses on museums and ancient relics in China.
But the vase, resembling ceramics popular during the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1736-1795) of the Qing Dynasty, soon drew public scorn due to its meretricious coloring.
A Palace Museum docent found the vase in the widely-circulated photo is nothing but a knock-off.
Its glazing is wrong, according to Zhang Shen, a docent at the Palace Museum.
"I felt it was an eyesore when I first saw the photo as part of a viral meme. I couldn't take it that the image was so widely viewed across public accounts and even used on Baidu Baike, China's largest Web-based encyclopaedia," Zhang said.
Nicknamed the "Mother of Porcelain," the real vase should have 17 glazed colors.
Zhang later released a photo of the real vase on his Weibo account, with an interpretation of the 17 glazes and colors, as well as related calcination.
By comparing the real vase and knock-off, we found Emperor Qianlong's aesthetic not so tacky, and the two vases are quite different in dispositions, some netizens said.
Visitors to the Porcelain Hall of the Palace Museum sharply increased these days, and many came for Emperor Qianlong's glazed vase, Zhang said.
