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Can someone help me identify this jar? It is about 3" tall and 3.5" diameter. It has crackle in glaze and some discoloration from age. I'm assuming it is earthenware. Any help will be appreciated.



Link :Multiple pictures of the Satsuma Jar

Satsuma marks have been much abused, but without one, which is the case with your jar or box, there's no ready reason to use the term in an unqualified manner. In this regard, the item might more aptly be referred to as a Japanese late Meiji-period (1868-1912) Satsuma-type crackle-glaze stoneware jar or box with gilt-highlighted polychrome and Moriage slip-painted decoration. Many of these unmarked pieces were made by studios at Kyoto and elsewhere.

FYI: The numerical characters on the rims of this piece are factory quality-control notations.

Best regards,

Bill H.

I disagree on the marks being "factory quality control notations". One of the 3 marks on the bottom rim is the Satsuma Mark...the circle with the plus inside.

I can only say at this point that I have never seen a proper Satsuma or other porcelain mark I can recall that was more or less scribbled on a bottom rim. Hardly a fitting spot for something that is supposed to symbolize the long history and royal heritage of the Satsuma fiefdom. But it is not my station to rescue anyone in this forum from what they wish to believe.

Good day,

Bill H.

Here is the listing and there are pictures of the Satsuma mark on the last 2 pics



URL Title :Link with more pictures

The penultimate image of the cover shows a stamped or penned-on notation (turned 90-degrees clockwise of its proper reading position) that is either a blurred '19' or the term for 'first month' (January). The final picture shows characters that read as the number '139', also turned to their right side.

Below is a link to a photo of a late Meiji vase with Satsuma crest and kanji mark (on the right side of the cartouche).

That's a nice item you've spotted but it has no Satsuma mark in sight. Feel free to take the issue up with the seller.

Good Luck,

Bill H.

URL Title :SatsumaMark

This piece is kut an i. The mark (cross in circle) is part of the fuku symbol used on kutaniware ...

For your ebay description I would say

Kutani ware with gilt moriage decor probably dating to Meiji era

Sorry Adam but the cross in a circle has nothing to do with Kutani. This is the Shimazu mon or family crest of the clan that ruled over the Satsuma Han and was/is used (just) to make an association with Satsuma on different kind of crackled (Satsuma-like) ware.
I agree with Bill H. that the above showed piece was probably made in Kyoto.

Regards,

Arjan

Interesting little box but not Satsuma or Kutani.
It would be ludicrous to believe that old and respected companies such as Satsuma or Kutani would abandon decades of tradition of placing their marks on the base of a piece, in favor of a scrawled black number on the lip of a small box.

Roger, I'm much in debt to you and Arjan both for weighing in on the side of reason here. The circled cross from the Satsuma 'mon' or crest was much exploited by Japanese entrepreneurs and artists after Japan opened up to foreign trade in the 19th century. However, what the Japanese have always appreciated is a concept wherein the mark and its variations imply the piece bearing it to represent a royal kiln and those who decorated the product to standards befitting the Mikado. The Satsuma clan in fact was the main purveyor of pottery to the emperor until the dukes of Hirado supplanted them by producing true Chinese-type porcelain (with the help of Korean prisoners of war) after the late 16th century.

Best regards,

Bill H.

Roger even more ludicrous to call Satsuma or Kutani as companies they were / are areas within Japan This would make your comments of no value to the enquirer.The marks are most likely to be decorator marks to enable him to get paid. The piece is what is generically known as Satsuma probably from one of the many unrecorded decorators from the meiji period.

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