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Can anyone help me to ID (origin, approx. age) this ewer? It stands 8” tall and is about 5 ½” across at its widest. I believe it is made of porcelain. It has two glaze finishes: the upper portion has a matt finish and is decorated with gold, while the lower portion has a high-gloss finish and is decorated with hand painted flowers and drizzles of cobalt-blue glaze. It is signed on the bottom but I don't know if the characters are Chinese or Japanese. Many thanks, Laurie.

Your ewer is a Japanese product, possibly made in the Meiji period, just before US tariff law prompted the use of "Nippon" marks on such exports in 1890. I'm speculating in this direction, because the ewer has the definite look and good quality of Nippon era Japanese ceramics made to compete in Western markets.

The mark is written in a freehand style, which left the second character somewhat less than translator-friendly, but it finally emerged after much Googling as 山陶園製 (possibly read as 'Yama To En Sei'), which means something along the lines of 'Made by the Mountain Pottery Park'. The third item down in the Japanese blog at the below link is a cup & saucer set with the same mark, probably of more recent vintage than your ewer.

Best regards,

Bill H.

URL Title :MountainPotteryGarden

Thanks for taking the time to post a reply, Bill. It's very helpful and is much appreciated. And kudos to this forum for allowing amateur collectors to post questions on it. Cheers, Laurie.

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