Cloisonne effect painted porcelain lamp base

Hi all! Just bought this piece from a local brocanteur who is closing his business - it's faux cloisonne (which he told me) and I bought it because a) I liked it and b) I wanted to research it. But I'm drawing a blank! All searches just come up with actual cloisonne and I can't seem to find d anything about where these were made and even the materials.

The dealer told me it was on unglazed biscuit porcelain (it has no overglaze. He also told me it was probably French made, but I took it apart and (I think!) there is a small Japanese eye character mark at the bottom.

Would've to hear any thoughts on where to start looking for it's history! And also of anyone has advice about cleaning the grime off the biscunit porcelain which zi know nothing about ,)

Thanks for any insights! Scuse the mess !

(EDITED - to put up the correct images of the faux cloisonne, rather than the real deal - sorry to any early birds looking at the wrong ones!)

 

May we see the entire piece please?

Debora

 

Yes! Sorry I made a mistake with the first lot of images so was just editing to add the right piece...included the actual cloisonne one you can see behind it instead!

 

It's not fake cloisonne, it's Totai Shippo work. Looks to be inter war too, so a nice find. This kind of ware isn't fetching a lot of money yet, but I would hang onto it as it is very scarce compared to cloisonne, satsuma etc.

 

The look of the bottom inclines me to think this is not porcelain but earthenware. Is that your take on it too, @Ce BCA ?

 

I believe the technique was applied to different types of ceramics.

 

Yes, looks to be earthenware, as AJ mentioned totai shippo can be found in both porcelain and pottery.

 

Thanks, I knew that but wanted to bring this difference to Kylie's attention, since the title of the thread says "porcelain."

 

I googled totai shippo as I was unfamiliar with the term. Here is the gotheborg definition and info: https://gotheborg.com/marks/totaishippo.shtml

 

Thank you to everyone who has replied! This forum is the best!! I would have looked for ages and not found that totai shippo reference - it does seem quite rare, there isn't a lot online to compare.

I did see these ones...some similarities but not much to be said about them.
19thC Japanese Totai Shippo Cloisonne Vase Lamp Base | eBay
Vintage Japanese Taisho Totai-Shippo Cloisonné Vase Available For Immediate Sale At Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

Interesting (or not?) that Sotheby's note their one as being 'ceramic' rather than porcelain or earthenware. I thought mine looks like the same material as that one, so was hoping to find the definitive answer there but no luck

I got the piece out for another look after reading the comments - I am still a bit in the dark on the material used, it rings a little more lightly than I would expect from earthenware, although I suppose it might be just Japanese earthenware versus French faience that I'm more used to handling. But I agree it doesn't exactly look like porcelain on the base, too gritty looking. I was just going on what the dealer told me he thought it was.

Can anyone please enlighten me regards something strange about the surface - it is very matt finish, but has small spots of shine which weirdly look like places where it's been knocked. It's a really odd effect.

Also is there a resource which would summarise how this was done? Is it actually just a different technique of cloisonne? Or a whole different thing?

Thank you again!!

 

Thank you so much for this - great reference! I've asked a few more questions above (if you have time to fill in some more blanks for me but I was also wondering how you would decide on the date for such a thing? Judging purely by the condition and wear pattern on the ceramic, I would have said a little earlier about 1900 ish. I think the lamp parts look newer than this though.

And should I bother trying to ID the mark? Might be a fool's errand

Thank you so much again !

 

Yes, it appears to be Kyoto type clay, same as used in some Satsuma.

From the style, this type of totai shippo is generally dated as inter-war. The base looks a little clunky for earlier work too.

It just says 3 5 so nothing useful, a batch number, style reference etc.

 

Thank you so much! Such helpful replies, I'm really grateful I'm looking forward to learning a little more about this technique, it is really beautiful and worth knowing I think!

Thanks so much again