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Subject:translation?
Posted By: Janine Taft Fri, Apr 04, 2014 IP: 69.205.223.23

Can anyone translate the characters in this picture? I have a friend who speaks Mandarin and she could not translate it, but sent me to her friend who speaks Cantonese. The woman who speaks Cantonese thought this might be very, very old Chinese but couldn't translate it either.



Subject:Re: translation?
Posted By: Bill H Sat, Apr 05, 2014

These are pseudo characters, occasionally found on the base of European chinoiserie. If anything, they might "translate" to "fake ivory", as the art that sits on such a stand is typically a resin casting, as apparently is the stand itself in this case.

Best regards,

Bill H.

Subject:Re: translation?
Posted By: mikeoz Sat, Apr 05, 2014

If you bothered to show us the object, we could comment with more detail.

However, I am not surprised that your friends - speaking either Mandarin or Cantonese - could not read these scratches.

I am sure, that if we saw the rest of the object it would be clear that this is not Oriental in any respect. The base does not look particularly Chinese. And the marks look like made-up pretend Chinese characters.


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