Does anyone recognize the maker of these ceramic birds?

Please see the attached images. Do you happen to recognize the style and/or the makers mark? Thanks up front for your help!

 

Hi Scott, welcome to Antiquers
Please post your pics as indicated below
https://www.antiquers.com/threads/posting-a-thread-and-uploading-pictures.15990/

 

They remind me of Japanese bronze pieces by Sotaro Saegusa, but I am not sure if he made pottery figures. They do look Japanese to me.

 

Fabulous! Very MCM,I looked a little but more potters used a stick figure to sign than one would think . These are almost brutalist in shape,why does NO ONE give sizes anymore ?

 

Isn't the FILE SIZE sufficient?

 

I like them, cute Cubist. Having said that, I agree with Johnny, MCM.

 

Welcome Scott.

 

I apologize for the unbelievably delayed response. I thought that I would receive email notifications that follow-up posts had been made but I didn't seem to see anything. I greatly appreciate everyone's input. I'm still at a complete loss as to the artist of these two birds. If anyone happens to have any additional insight it would be ever so deeply appreciated.

 

You might try looking at the Marks Project website. It looks you have pieces by two separate people. I did a quick search for the second one using the "round mark" shape - but didn't see a match:

https://www.themarksproject.org/sea...k&mark_text=&field_mark_shape_value[0]=circle

Also, to me the lighter one with the big mouth makes me think of a frog or toad. I can imagine the black one to be a bird, but it also looks like a pointy-snouted dog (some the terriers) or a reptile.

 

Thank so much for your response UncleChuckTX. I'm familiar with a number of ceramics-related websites but I wasn't aware of the Marks Project. Definitely added this to my favorites list.

It may be somewhat difficult to tell from the images but the lighter piece I'm fairly certain is an owl. The darker piece looks like a bird, but at least to me at the same time it also somewhat resembles a porcupine.

Regarding some of the other questions/comments above, these pieces are approximately 4 inches tall.

I'm attaching a better close-up image of the marks. Though it's somewhat hard to tell they both do have the same mark. I'm not sure if it consists of letters or some sort of symbol. To me it looks somewhat like a butterfly as well, which if this is the case also make me think possibly Asian.

Thanks again - Scott

 

Thanks for the new pics. On the previous pics of the mark, I was seeing "OK" in a circle on the light colored piece. Now it looks like an hourglass or maybe an apple with two bites on each side. And my "two separate people" comment was due to the different types of bases and clay types - how interesting that the same artist made both.

Good luck!

 

It's always so frustrating on pottery or paintings when someone has a mark that really doesn't identify who they are other than to themselves or other people who already know who they are.

Anyway, I wondered if you had investigated either of these two possibilities. Flynn's mark seems so close with Oestriech not so much.

Jeffrey Oestreich or Robert "Irish" Flynn

They both have marks on the "The Marks Project" that are similar and both seem to have worked in a style I could imagine could include something like yours though hard to say since I don't see anything quite like yours. They both have long working histories.

Oestreich
https://www.themarksproject.org/marks/oestreich





Flynn
https://www.themarksproject.org/marks/flynn


http://www.redlodgeclaycenter.com/artist/robert-irish-flynn/