asian stoneware ? bottle

I'm new to this forum and am grasping a straws.

I have an Asian style bottle that was found in a storage closet when my grandmother passed away over 25 years ago. I thought it was unusual and so kept it all these years, but I've always been curious about it because my grandmother did not collect things such as this and it was in a closet with old cameras and sewing machines; she was born and raised in a small town in Alberta, Canada.
I have tried to translate the inscriptions with no luck and have never seen anything like it in all the web searching I've done. It appears old and hand-painted, done in green and red with a beige background, and I can't find anything to identify the maker. Someone told me they though it was a 1920's Chinese bottle, others have suggest a Japanese sake bottle.

Can anyone tell me what it is or point in the right direction. I'm hoping that if I can learn about it, I can understand why it was important to her.



........I tried to upload some pictures but was told the file was too large; anyone have any suggestions as to how to compress them?

 

There is a thread about that; I use Irfanview, but many graphics programs will do it; I use the resize function to get the image to around 500 pixels wide, then use the upload a file button.

 

See the thread at https://www.antiquers.com/threads/photo.8433/#post-122767

File size needs to be below 1MB

 

Thanks all_fakes!....here are photos

 

Great; and you do have the choice to use thumbnails or full-size; I usually go full-size if it is just one or two, thumbnails if it is more.
However I don't know anything about your bottle....but I'm sure someone will!

 

What fascinates me is the writing... of all the sake or other similar bottles I've seen... I've never seen so much writing! Makes me wonder if it had a special purpose. I don't claim to know pottery/ceramics, but those who do will probably want a shot of the under-side/base, PM. Good luck with it.
Gila

 

Could you please post a picture of the bottom, even if there are no maker's marks?

In the meantime, it has similarities to Chinese Cizhou ware as far as I can tell, but I'm not an expert on this.

Bottle China, Cizhou ware
Ming dynasty, late 14th–15th century


Lot 4 Rare Chinese Cizhou Ware Small Stoneware Jar #la004rg
live auction Jun 02, 2015 Auctioneer: East Corner

Don't forget the picture of the bottom, please!

 

is that a repair on the rim and i see something else? could we get a closer picture of that and as the previous post a picture of the bottom.

 

The interesting bits -- perhaps a name or a location or a date -- are over at the left, where they're hidden in your photo. But like the other part of the inscription, they might be very difficult to read.

 

There is a way to get Google to translate this with the picture alone, no typing....and a robot lady will read it out loud, too!

My son took pictures with his cell phone of text on a Chinese folding fan I have, and some how made Google translate it.

Does anyone here know how to do that? If not, hopefully I'll see him this weekend, and will ask for instructions, LOL.

 

.

 

Thank you all for your help!
Here are some more photos - no repairs on the bottle that I can tell, just areas of missed glaze (around the edge of the bottom) and the one spot on the side that is a chip. On the top rim it feels very smooth, almost as if the glaze was missed and I'm not sure what the spot inside the neck is....too much glaze that broke off ? or designed that way ?, as it's very round. I've also included a photo (last image) of what looks like it might be another character, or it could just be part of the design...

 

I trust the feel of item when trying to judge the age, without seeing the item myself; the lip has been repaired either by the makers or later. i prefer the later. this does not count against the piece, the inside rim is not damage but looks to be an error in the firing of the piece and again counts for the piece. i have had items in my collection of similar age and i would put it around 17th to late 18th century, perhaps we can find out more if someone can read the writing? also keep in mind the Chinese makers do re-use writing on their pieces, this would include marks as well.

 

And then maybe post it here?????

 

I sure will!
So far I've figured out on my own that it's called OCR - Optical Character Recognition, which will read the original language and then put it through the translator.

That gray clay sure looks like Japanese pottery of the Kyoto/Kenzan style. Is anyone here absolutely positive this is Chinese writing?

 

To me, the decoration looks like something from the Yuan or Ming dynasty. But could be later reproduction. The shape is not very traditional.
There is absolutely no way OCR to recognize the text. It may help with a good image of Simplified Chinese or maybe well-written Traditional but I bet it won't work with this script. Most likely most of the Chinese speaking people won't be able to translate it either. Not everyone can read old scripts.

 

It looks like you're right about the old script Kardi. I tried about a dozen on-line OCR translators and they either told me "no readable text" or gave me a page full numbers and question marks.

We need to find a way to get this translated. !!!!

In the meantime, here are some interesting links:

Jin Period Cizhou type Red/Green Enamelled wares
Items in the Shenzhen Museum China

Jin Period Cizhou type Red/Green Enamelled wares
Items belonging to Mainland Chinese collectors


eBay Item Number: 201540408154
Starting Price: US $8.50 Mar-12-2016
Ended: Mar 22, 2016
Winning bid: US $1,325.00 [ Bidders: 16, 33 bids ]
UNUSUAL LARGE CHINESE CIZHOU DINGYAO WHITE GLAZED JAR VASE JIN YUAN MING DYNASTY



Ebay Item Number: 351647952186
Starting Price: US $8.50, Feb-06-2016
Ended: Feb 16, 2016
Winning bid: US $315.00 [ Bidders: 10, 20 bids ]
EARLY CHINESE CIZHOU POLYCHROME GLAZED FLORAL LOTUS BOWL JIN YUAN DYNASTY

 

Just to keep you all updated, I received this response to one of my queries this morning from the Director at the International Center for East Asian Archaeology and Cultural History (ICEAACH) at Boston University.......some pretty interesting info:

"Thanks for sending the interesting images of your bottle. My own area of study is the Chinese Bronze Age, so your Japanese/Chinese ceramic is pretty far outside of my area of expertise. I showed your photos to a Japanese colleague who works in 17th C. Southeast Asia, and her impression is that your bottle is a 17th-century Japanese bottle (or its Chinese imitation, which was common) from the famous ceramics center in the town of Arita, in the former Hizen Province in northwestern Kyushu. She says that the red and green colors are typical of the Japanese akae (赤絵) overglaze enamel ware. The writing style resembles Japanese but the actual grammar appears to be Chinese, which is not surprising because these phrases were copied over and over from the original Chinese sources, and often the ceramics painter made changes or mistakes."

So according to his information, this would make the characters totally unreadable. But I'm still on the hunt and will be trying to contact museums with Japanese pottery.
Wish me luck....

 

Good luck!!!!!! An excellent mystery.
So you're trying to decipher the Asian equivalent of a marginally literate American writing phrases in Spanish for the purpose of telling Canadians something about the contents of a bottle...
Thanks for the update!
Keep us posted, please.

 

Oh! I wish they would have elaborated on the 'phrases'. She must have some idea what it says.