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antique Chinese figural pottery

by Ron Webber
(Canada)

My limited research on this very unusual piece of Chinese pottery indicates it may be a 19th cent. Korean brush washer ... the six character reign mark is very distinctive but has provided no clues to its age.

Any comments or info. that would help in id'ing will be greatly appreciated.

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Jun 05, 2011
 language
by: peter

Hi Ron,
The answer is "both". The first three characters top down on the right mean "great Japan", this can give you an indication of the age, as far as I know, as "great" was only used before a certain time, probably first half of 20th century at the latest. But, I do not have sufficient knowledge of Japanese ceramics to say when usage ceased, exactly.

FYI, Japanese uses some 2000 Chinese characters (Kanji), mixed with the Kana characters. In marks (names) the Kanji are normally used.
I cannot read two of the characters, as handwriting can sometimes be difficult to read, but someone with knowledge of Japanese ceramics, (or a native Japanese speaker) might be able to tell you whether the first two characters on the left are an artist's name, workshop, etc.. Sometimes artist and workshop's name are the same. Usually, it is either a family name or a place name.
Jun 05, 2011
 six character reign mark
by: Ron Webber

Thanks Peter for your comments ... do you mean the writing is Japanese or it translates to "made in Japan" Ron
Jun 05, 2011
 figural pottery
by: peter

Hello,
The only I can tell you is that the characters say it was made in Japan.

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