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hi all,

I am trying for a while now to identify the below mark.
it appears to be on a Song tenmoku, oil spot glaze...
I apologize, this is the only picture that I have for the moment, I will upload more on the following days...

Thanks!

the character is 龍, or dragon. your bowl is likely to be modern and Japanese, as the Chinese did not impress seals in the unfired clay like the Japanese do.

thank you rat for looking into.

now, I realize that an impressed mark is highly unusual, but with regard to this I have to say:
- there are impressed marks on jian ware, its true, not that often as the incised ones. please see koh site.
- i have seen some modern cups, with impressed marks, but the style and all are totally different. also, if it is a modern Japanese, why not use the kanji dragon which is slightly different?
- on the other hand, I haven't seen a similar cup as this one and to be known it is a old one. true, this can work the other way, I haven't seen a one known as been new either...
- the spots presents iridescence, we have this glittering all over the place. I will have more pictures posted during the weekend. A bit of sparkling can been seen in the above picture too.
- there are no cracks on this cup. i wasn't able to observe any 'spider net", no cracks at all... this may be another thing to consider if this cup is modern or not...

I got this cup at a small auction house, specialized in estate sales, most of the times clearing out the houses after the owners finished their business on this world... I can't remember seeing any Japanese stuff at that sale, neither a print, but 100% there was a lot of Chinese ceramic and porcelain (I got some for myself). of course, this is not a proof of authenticity, but good enough for me.

I have this cup for some time now, but for the last several days I can say I am restless trying to pinpoint the origin.

I have some directions, but is getting more blurry rather than clear and I am waiting to see what others think about this cup

is this a small seal script? is the dragon character there?

Thanks!

more pcture

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