The first place to look for a reign mark on a chinese piece of porcelain is the bottom of the item.
Identification chinese porcelain marks red.
In general the marks will be red or blue and hand painted or stamped.
Consider the color of the marks and how they were applied to the porcelain piece.
Still the marks are something of a fingerprint of the potter and its time.
If you see red marks the piece was likely created in the mid 19th century while pieces with blue marks were likely made later.
There was a brief time during the kangxi period in 1667 when the emperor issued an edict forbidding the use of his reign mark on porcelain in case the ceramics were smashed and discarded.
The most common marks on porcelain tend to be written in underglaze blue within a double circle.
If this is not the case an enamel reign mark will appear over the glaze.
Chinese porcelain marks marks on later chinese porcelain it is said that the only rule that is really certain when it comes to chinese reign marks is that most of them are not from the period they say.
These could have been impressed or incised and the colour palette could include paler shades of blue black or iron red.
See a comparison of chinese and non chinese marks.
Identifying chinese porcelain involves more than just knowing the mark in order to decide age and manufacturer as many novices do believe.
It s a very simplified rule but statistically speaking marks from mid 19th century or later are actually mostly red while older marks are mostly blue.