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Hello,

Assistance would be most appreciated with identifying the reign mark and possible time period this plate make have been made.

Thank you!!

The stack of characters on the side of the handle appear to read down as 民國甲子年立 (Minguo Jiazi nian li). translatable as "Established in the Jiazi Year of the Republic". The Jiazi cyclical year fell most recently in 1924 and 1984, so this conceivably could be a fairly recent product of a firm or factory established as early as 1924.

The other four characters aren't entirely clear for me as to meaning, but they may read down and across from the right as 榮陽遣適 (Rong yang qian shi). Rong Yang and Rong Yangqian conceivably are surnames and given names (though I couldn't confirm the latter one using Google). My references do confirm that Shi/適 pertains to matters bridal, so the firm that made your stacked plates may make or sell gifts for brides. Perhaps I. Nagy can rescue me yet again on this one. Might this be a Japanese product?

Best regards,

Bill H.

Thank you so much Bill for taking the time to provide me with as much information as you did. Very much appreciated!!

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