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anne0605

Japanese Tea Set

anne0605
11 years ago

I have a very old Japanese Tea Set in a dragon design with teapot, creamer and sugar, six cups/saucers and six sandwich plates. I can also provide a picture of the mark on bottom of pieces if would be helpful. I'm looking for help to determine a ballpark value for the set.

Comments (3)

  • calliope
    11 years ago

    I'm sorry, I answered once and the site was glitching. From what is showing on my monitor, it appears the ware is not thin and delicate, like eggshell, but heavier. Can you verify that? This speaks to me that it is more utilitarian, than what is usually presented in Dragonware. The dragons themselves are also less defined than the typical set one sees. This will also impact value. Can you share what you know of the provenance? How do you know it is 'old', which is a subjective term, anyway. I can tell you it is make for the occidental market, because of the number of settings, and the addition of the sugar and creamer. If it is indeed Japanese, the bulk of these sets coming in to the U.S. were brought back by returning military, visiting or stationed there and not exported. This helps to set a timeframe, because those bases started phasing out in the mid fifties. Is is newly acquired, or has it been handed down through the family? Is there any gold trim? A close-up of a plate, front and back might be helpful. It's nice that it's a complete set, because it's more typical to find sellers breaking a set and selling by the piece on this type of ware. Unless it were particularly old, and I can't see evidence of that, I would suspect it to not sell for what the eggshell lithopane Dragon sets can garner. Just can't tell from the picture much more. I can't see it well enough to even substantiate the design is Japanese. Is there any more information you can share?

  • lindac
    11 years ago

    It's Japanese and a fairly traditional sort of pattern.
    See below...
    Also would love to see a good picture of the back stamp if you want to learn more.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Tea set

  • calliope
    11 years ago

    It is not as common to see this design as the dragon on export or made for other than domestic market, but I am familiar with this style, and it is a traditional style actually, usually representing the era of the warrior. That's why I'd like to see a close-up of the plate. The rendition I can see on the photograph the OP sent looks like a more stylistic and less authentic rendering of that particular type of ware and could help age the piece. This theme is very popular on old, old pieces, but I have my reasons to think this set isn't a particularly old set. Given I am slightly younger than dirt, it again is subjective. ;-) I would also like to see a close-up of the dragon heads because the monitor either does not do it justice, or it would also speak to me of the quality of ware this is.