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Subject:Re: Help identifying a wedding present (pottery)
Posted By: Bill H Mon, Jul 18, 2016
Ryosai I died in 1899, and Ryosai II in 1905. At age 17, Ryosai III assumed his father's potter's name as well as management of the kiln.
Since the purpose of the operation was to make export ware, there's probably little reason to assume that stocks of Ryosai I and II-marked pieces were available in large numbers during the 1920s, though I suppose there may have been some in the hands of domestic Japanese collectors. The Karp & Pond book on Sumida includes clips from catalogs of the U.S. importing company A.A. Vantine, showing pieces of this pottery made between 1916 and circa 1924, including a vase that looks to be quite like yours in form and decoration.
Ryosai III had moved the kiln from the Tokyo area to Yokohama in 1914, where it was destroyed by the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and subsequently rebuilt. Thus it might be postulated that the bulk of any Sumida ware obtained in Japan during the mid-20th century probably was made at the Ryosai III kiln between about 1924 and 1941, when it shut down for the duration of the war.
I'm unsure of the basis for your assumptions of age made on the basis of labeling. Marking of Japanese exports was driven to no small extent by changes in U.S. customs law, which by 1920 permitted paper labeling and bulk clearance of case lots. Thus the Japanese markings could follow old kanji forms without infringing on the law.
Best regards,
Bill H.
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