Wang Bingrong Chinese Ceramic Maker Marks and Information. Traditionally, individual artists remained anonymous on artworks created in imperial China. With the exception of paintings and calligraphy, the names of the artists gave way to the imperial reign marks. But this custom began to change in the early nineteenth century. Although the imperial reign marks and important hall marks still represented unshakeable power and privilege, there was a growing impulse for artists and craftsmen to sign their wares if they became sufficiently well known among the patrons to warrant a personal identification.
Wang Bingrong, believed to have been active during the Tongzhi and Guangxu periods (1862-1908), was among the celebrated emerging artists who gained fame as a talented porcelain carver. According to Yinliuzhai Shuo Ci (Commentary on Porcelain from the Studio of Drinking Streams) composed by Xu Zhiheng during the Qing dynasty, Wang’s best-known work was scholar’s objects.
Dragons were among Wang’s popular designs. It was characteristic that the eyes of the dragons in Wang’s works were usually enameled in black. His dragons are executed in varying styles and positions, suggesting that the designs were more likely achieved by hand carving, not from mold.
Wang’s works are usually covered with pale monochrome enamels and sometimes left in the raw biscuit state. For more carved porcelain examples, some with Wang Bingrong signatures, refer to Elegance in Relief, Carved Porcelain from Jingdezhen of the 19th to early 20th Centuries, Tony Miller and Humphrey Hui, pp. 160-276.
Wang Bingrong, along with Chen Guozhi and Li Yucheng, were ceramic artists at Jingdezhen during the early nineteenth century, who individually crafted and signed carved porcelains. During the first half of the nineteenth century the distinction between artists and craftsmen began to dissolve, encouraging fine artists like Wang to assume artistic pretensions of identification.
