Anyone for Tea? (chinese tea set dating)

Hey treasure seekers and tea drinkers!

Would anyone care to take a stab at dating this hand-painted tea-set? Condition is good so I’m presuming not that old (1980’s maybe) ?

Cheers,
Patrick

 

Your picture of the marks is way out of focus and doesn't have enough light on the characters. Can you take another shot?

 

FYI - Japanese not Chinese.

 

Id guess more 1920s. Love the little dabs of color.

 

Slight quick edit.....but needs to be closer and sharper of each character to really help!

 

I'm on my way home now, so will get a better shot of the label. Initially I thought Japanese, honest I did..lol, right up until posting this thread and changed my mind. Would be great if it was a 1920's set.

The porcelain is very thin, almost transparent.

Thanks guys.

 

Hey Guys... marks below. Before taking these photos I thought the mark was actually a worn sticker, turns out it's painted and the gold characters are only visible when the light is hitting them at an angle!

Cheers,
Patrick

 

Japanese, I think. So-called eggshell porcelain because it’s so thin. Circa 1920s/30s, but you might find the mark at gotheborg.com under Japanese marks.

 

What points to the 1920s/30s? Is it because there was a boom in production during that period, so statistically speaking it's more likely to come from that era? Or are there other clues in the decoration, theme, material, pattern, mark or gilding? Trying to learn for myself, so don't need to hassle you guys every time I pick something up.

Also, can anyone help with translating the mark? I've scoured Gotheborg, and a bunch of other sites as well as google images using one of my own label images but come-up short! The mark is very stylized, which doesn't help.

Thanks,
Patrick

 

Go back to the Satsuma section and look there. You may or may not find it.

 

I've been through Gotheborg multiple times with no exact match. But I did see one entry in Japanese marks that, though inconclusive, described this style of mark as Kutani. The white background with the scene in predominantly grey and black doesn't appear much on the site and where it does, not exclusively in a single region.

Maybe @Mat has thoughts on this.

 

@Bakersgma
After I posted Satsuma, I started questioning myself.
The style of porcelain is more Kutani.

I was going on the black rectangle with gold writing. That seems to be more in keeping with the way Satsuma styles were signed.

I looked through both (rather quickly) and didn't see any match.

Isn't it also @Silver Wolf who can also read these marks

 

I'm not sure who else knows Japanese better than Chinese, but you could be right about Silver Wolf, Pat.

And I may have mixed up the Satsuma vs Kutani reference - pottery style vs marking style. In any event, the mark itself did not match the example with the text appeared.

 

I'm continuing to try and decipher the characters...

#1. first off, am I looking at 3 characters or 4?

#2. Is the first character 'Made' ?

#3. Is the 2nd character 'by' or 'right' ? (see below image)

4. Is the bottom row, just one big fat character or 2 joined together?

Thanks!

 

from the style of the mark i believe this is japanese style mark,at the first i think it's 3 character but i can't find anymore information about that,also the chance of the mark only contain 2 character also possible since the japanese wrote the marks more artsy than chinese marks,the first character in chinese it's called shan in japanese (yama/zan) that meaning mountain, the second characer i think it's mean right or the bottom row is harder part for me to decipher it,i'll need some time,and i think it's not kinkozan mark,i tried to translate into japanese the first and the second character it sound yama migi or zan migi?i think it sound weird

 

the way the japanese and chinese wrote the marks,they have different style,i think chinese wrote with straight character and japanese looks like of more artsy,so sometimes the character looks more irregular

 

Thanks Silver Wolf. I did some more digging myself and got some great info from a Japanese guy on a FB group.

The makers mark on the bottom translates as 'Iwano' (岩 = Iwa 野 =No). It was produced between the late 19th & early 20th century and painted by 'Iwano', an exporter based out of Yokohama. The decoration is typically 'Yokohama' in style with a motif of birds on porcelain delicately painted with the light ink wash technique.

 

ah so it was right only 2 character,glad you find the information,