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I have an old bronze censer? that I adore sitting amongst my hoard that I am trying to date and see if it is worth selling even though the base has some damage. I am presuming it is 19th century but unsure of the stamp mark period and am looking for some helpful advice please ... my 1st post and hopefully will be looking for more advice on my other bits. I cannot upload pictures as they are too big?

This is a Japanese bronze with a mark of Made by Murakami", a Meiji era (1868-1912) bronzesmith. The characters look to me to be "村上彦製造", of which the first two are the name "Murakami" and the last two say "Made by" (Sei zo). The one in the middle means "elegant" and has pronunciations of "hiko" and "gan" in Japanese. However, there is another similar one "産" meaning "product" and pronounced "san" among other choices. I'd welcome review by I.Nagy as usual as he is quite familiar with Murakami.

Best regards,

Bill H.

Wow how very interesting to find out the actual bronzesmith. Thank you Bill. H. Someone offered me £50 for it the other day but I love it and am tempted to get it mended

Re; Bronze jardiniere
I opt for;
村上𫝸製造　Murakami Hiko seizō Made by Murakami Hiko

𫝸 is the simplified form of 彦 (Hiko)
The simplified version of 産　would be only 产, otherwise the ...産製造 version grammatically would not be correct.　
However, I can`t find metal caster named Murakami Hiko on the net.

Regards,
I.Nagy

I googled up a couple of mentions, including the June 2021 auction result shown in the catalog image below with the same mark that is found on Rachel's item but in better condition.

https://www.catawiki.com/no/l/24293935-vase-1-bronse-marked-murakami-hiko-seizo-made-by-murakami-hiko-japan-ca-1900-meiji-periode

These two were all the relevant hits I could get.

Best regards,

Bill H

Thank you I.Nagy for your help. I shall have another go at researching it with the name you mention. So is this item a censer or an urn of sorts? I have seen a similar one for sale, in much better condition but they said it was a garden planter ... I am undecided where to use it as it deserves to be seen and not sat on a shelf gathering dust 😘

Thanks for the comments, I.Nagy. Here are two results that popped up in my Google search"

https://www.catawiki.com/ro/l/24293935-vaza-1-bronz-marked-murakami-hiko-seizo-made-by-murakami-hiko-japonia-ca-1900-perioada-meiji

https://www.lyonandturnbull.com/auction/lot/302-japanese-bronze-lobed-jardiniere/?lot=233940&sd=1

The Lyon and Turnbull result is similar to Rachel's example but better condition. See image below.

Best regards,

Bill H.

hate to piecemeal these things, but here are some views of the vase at the below catawiki website that I mentioned previously.

https://www.catawiki.com/no/l/24293935-vase-1-bronse-marked-murakami-hiko-seizo-made-by-murakami-hiko-japan-ca-1900-meiji-periode#gallery

Bill H.

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