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I was wondering if someone can read and translate the marking on this porcelain plate. I am not sure of the age, make and value - all opinions welcome!
Thanks in advance!

HI Annette,
Never seen this mark before, don’t know what it means, but I can help you with 3 of the 4 characters by using http://jisho.org/#radical and the Google translator:
- 欧 = Ö = Europe
- 仏 = hotoke (but pronounced different) = Buddha
- 旦 = dan = dan(?)
I could not find the top left character.
The first 2 together 欧仏 are being translated as Ö futsu, but pronounced differently.
It all makes no sense to me, so I hope a real expert in Japanese language can tell you more.
Regards,
Martin.

The other character appears to be 蘭 (orchid), which is indicated to be the Japanese surnames Ran, Araragi, Araki and Aragi.

Best regards,

Bill H.

Thank you for both for your help. Someone told me it reads : ōu fó lán dàn or Ō Futsu Araragi Dan or
Obotoke RanDan, which means European, French orchid brink. Does it make any sense at all ?
Thank you very much again.
Annette D.

Thanks to Bill we have all the characters, but the translation "European French orchid brink" does not make sense to me at all. The translation of the 4 characters together to English give "OFutsuranDan", and in 2 parts it gives indeed "Obotoke"and "Randan".

I think we need a Japanese (expert) to give the correct translations.

Regards,
Martin.

If these characters are all being used in their transliterative guises, then there's no telling what they might mean. Since I'm coming at them as a student of Chinese, my speculation about meaning would be without merit.

Good luck,

Bill H.

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