Identifying an antique tea set

Hello,
My mum brought me round this exquisite tea set that her Aunt gave her many years ago. My mum remembers her having said something about the set having been her mother's, who died when my great aunt was 4 in 1911. Apart from a grainy photo, this is the only relic we have of my great-grandmother Alice (or Lilian, as she preferred to be called) and I shall treasure it. One of the cups is broken, but mendable. There's Chinese writing on the bases of the cups. I'd greatly appreciate any further info about these cups. Am I right in thinking they're Chinese art deco?

The complete set (that remains)

One of the cups

One of the cup bases

 

Hi, Lily and welcome to a great board.

You might be able to find your mark on the Gothenburg site that's linked below:

http://www.gotheborg.com/index.htm

 

I think Japanese, not Chinese.

Interesting. The design of the blank with the little dots and flower handle look more like German porcelain. But painted design is obviously not.

Time period 1900 ish.

I would not call this Art Deco. It has nothing in common with Art Deco that I see.

Oh and forgive me,
Welcome to the board.

 

Can't help, but that's a lovely tea set!!

 

Yes, older than Art Deco, which is fun. I see one cup is broken, but a display of four is very nice. There were probably more once upon a time, so don't fret that too much. You could try to repair since a family piece, if not, hold on to the intact saucer as a spare.

(I'm sure you know this, but never put these in a dishwasher.)

They are very pretty.

Welcome to the site!

 

Hello everyone and thanks for your friendly welcomes I am mending the broken one with PVA glue (which I read up on before when I had some broken china). It's joined really neatly. I'm just leaving it overnight to dry. I wouldn't drink tea out of it – or, in fact, any of them though, as they are too precious feeling. I tried scrolling through the site Jakatch linked, but couldn't find a matching mark. I'm going to try and scan a cup base to see if I can get a clearer image of a mark that I can Google image match. Interestingly, if it is Japanese, my great-grandfather had been in Japan a few years before he married my great-grandmother, so maybe he bought the set whilst there?

 

I lived in Japan for a few years and learned they sell many things in sets of 5 because the word for 4 is the same as the word for death--shi.

 

I've heard that too. The Chinese don't either, at least for their own use.

 

This is very interesting, thank you Janet and Evelyb30. I asked my English friend who lives in Japan (and has a PhD in Japanese) and he's confirmed that the writing is Japanese, says, "must be the maker's name". So it looks like, now I've mended the broken cup, we have the complete set. This is wonderful

 

I agree with all the comments above -- Japanese and turn of the 20th c. Interestingly, the moulded shape and the pink colour remind me of a lot of German /Bohemian china wares of that time period.

 

Kentworld, could the set be, in your opinion (or anyone else's here) early 1890s? My great-grandfather was in Japan at this time, but settled in Devon, England (where he met and married my g-grandmother) in about 1895. If this set can't be this early, then it rules out the possibility of his having brought it back from Japan with him

 

I just realise I wrote art deco instead of art nouveau in my original post

 

I wouldn't call this Art Nouveau either.

I wonder if the writing is simply the name of the painter.

Here in the US at the turn of the century late 1800s to early 1900s, china painting was very popular .
I'm glad Kentworld had the same gut feeling I did, that the porcelain looked German.

So whose to say that the C&S's weren't purchased as white blanks and then painted.
Why couldn't a Japanese artist have bought German cups and painted them?

 

The sense of Germanness is coming through strongly in these replies. Perhaps this may have happened (that unglazed C&Ses were sent to Japan. That you, CluuteredCloset49 feel this set might be late 1800s at least ties with the idea of my g-granddad having purchased it in Japan

 

Sure, it could be late 1890s, but I dunno for sure. Your set is Japanese, but the Japanese did a great deal of imitation of popular Western styles, so I think that this set may have been inspired from some of the German wares that were widely exported in the late 19th/early 20th c.

 

The mark's not very clear on the particular cup you posted. Maybe if you post some sharp photos of the mark on two or three other cups it'll be possible to read it. Maybe.

 

I have done this. I uploaded them to Facebook and my Japanese speaking friends have translated the marks as Mr Kishida. In Googling Kishida , I came across a contemporary fine art porcelain painter living in Kobe with the family name of Kishida. Kobe was where a photo of my great-grandfather was taken c.1892. I wonder if the Kishida family have a tradition of this work? I'll upload the photos I took of the clearer base marks to an album here so I can post them

 

The 5 cup base marks by LilyS posted Mar 31, 2017 at 3:28 PM

The clearest mark by LilyS posted Mar 31, 2017 at 3:29 PM

 

Yes, it's Kishida (sometimes also read Kishita) written with these characters: 岸田.

 

So the question is
Did Japan import white blanks from Germany?