Help identifying Japanese? pottery and characters

jp731

12 years ago

Hi.

Any help with this piece that just came into my hands would be much appreciated.

What is it? Where is it from? What period? What do the characters mean?

I don't know anything about it except that it belonged to my great-grandmother.

Comments (6)

gdm40
12 years ago
I would go straight to the source and ask a Chinese person if the could translate it for you.

Link to a translation help page follows.

Once you can get it translated it should be easy to research it with Google.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chinese Translation help
jp731
Original Author
12 years ago
Thank you for the link. Just posted the image and asked for translation help.
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lindac
12 years ago
All the Chinese translations in the world won't help you with tracing the maker. Someone who knows the language and not old pottery marks will just tell you what it says not who makes it.
suppose for example....you had a piece marked Capodimonte.....and you asked an Italian who knew nothing of Italian porcelain and he said...it says "the head of the mountain"....not a lot of help unless you know capodimonte....and then you don't need to ask!!
Try emailing your picture to the site below.
And....it looks Chinese to me.....why do you say Japanese? do you know something of the origin?

Here is a link that might be useful: Oriental pottery marks
jp731
Original Author
12 years ago
I only say Japanese because that's what my dad said when he passed the piece on to me, but it wouldn't surprise me if he was wrong. I know nothing about the origin.

Thank you for the link, I had already browsed the site and couldn't find there the characters I'm looking for. Will try shooting an email to an expert.
calliope
12 years ago
Looks like old Satsuma to me. IOW Japanese. Good luck on the 'translation'. It could mean something as inane as sun over the mountain. Satsuma has numerous marks, some with the family crest, some without, some with the artist's name, some not. The garb looks more Japanese than Chinese. The style is not uncommon in old Japanese ware. If it's of the period I think it is, it could be worth a chunk. Your local antique store or ebay is not the place to be evaluating Asian pottery. I've seen some real whoppers of misinformation. You should maybe try to find a company who is very familiar with this type of ware to value it.
Amiar
11 years ago
Hi, I was told that these two jars are antiquities & i cannot find any information on these Marks....just wanting to know if anyone can identify them or lead me to where I can find more info on them....both Jars have the same mark as i can tell....many thanks