Featured New to Antiquing because I found this vase :)

Hello! I recently inherited three vases and in researching them learned that they belonged to my great-great aunt. She was born in 1876. If they are older than that I can’t tell. Based on what I can see they are in the Satsuma style. I cannot find any identifying marks, clan marks etc. I’d like to nail this down and would appreciate any direction you could give me.

 

Welcome, Steve! Are there any marks on the bottom?

 

nothing. I looked carefully in case they were faint. Nothing inside the vase or on the inside of the lid. I actually forgot to take a pic of the lid but it has a dragon on it with one front paw on what looks like a ball

 

There's no question that it's Japanese. Beyond that I have no idea.

 

She was born in 1876.

are you suggesting she got these as a christening gift ?

 

As you have already noted they are Japanese Satsuma ware made for export. The style is suggestive they date from around 1890 to 1920. As they are unmarked it is not going to be possible to date them more accurately nor determine the maker/artist. Many 100's of makers and artists produced similar work, most pieces were produced in volume in factories by pieceworkers.

 

All I know for sure is that according to our family history, she had them by the time she was married at age 22. That could mean they were a present, but newlyweds couldn’t really afford something so nice at the outset so it may have been a wedding gift from her own mother

 

was it common for pieces to be unmarked?

 

Do they all have lids? A lid makes it...not a vase.

 

Yes very common, about 50/50 marked/unmarked from my experience.

 

These wouldn't have been hugely expensive in their time, they were made in volume and would have been easily affordable by a middle class family and even for more well off working class.

 

The absence of "Made in Japan" or some such legend dates them before the early 1920s when that marking became required for import.

 

That's often written, but it's not correct. Items from China and Japan were not routinely marked in Latin script until post WW2. During the inter war period in some cases they would have paper stickers on which are no longer present, and in other cases just the packaging was marked. The requirements were also sometimes ignored completely.

 

Thanks, I wasn't aware....so much for the history of imports...

 

Paper labels were in use right into the 1980s, so a missing label means precisely nothing.