Posted By: george Ingraham
Posted Date: Nov 06, 2006 (12:26 AM)
Hi Judy!
Thankyou so very much for your response. I am finding this very difficult to identify. I have been emailing everyone and place I can think of and even paid one site 15 dollars for an opinion. one of the responses thought it was a mudfigure. The other said Shiwan pottery figure from a kiln just outside of Canton in South of China. Just holding it and also comparing it visually to others online it appears to me to be very old (older than anyting I see from the 1900's for sure). I am not even close to being knowledgable enough to make specific claims. I also read that these figures that make their way back to the U.S. without stamps, do so because they were carried back instead of being purchased from overseas from a store and such. I had read that since the hands and face are not glazed and have a dark redish color to them that it gave support to the Shiwan from the Canton kiln of South China. That same person also emailed to share that he believed it to be from the Quin dynasty.
I am learning that identifying these figures is very difficult and varies. Another email response said he is going to look for a book he has that may identify the numbers from a number of different types of collectors/museum inventories.
This is really a lot of fun. I am going to be passing this down to my daughter, the great grandaughter to the grandparents of whom this was one of several gifts from via various dignitaries and elite family members while visiting on their tour to te Orient. Another item given as a gift while on the tour is a three hundred and fifty year old Japanese (procelain/clay?) hand warmer that I am going to try and identify the history too after this one.
It does not get any better than this. Now if I only had the money to play with towards purchasing more of these type of items!
- George Ingraham - Nov 07, 2006 (11:51 PM)