Help With An Incised Chinese Mark Please

Can anyone make heads or tails of this Chinese mark. Sorry the pics are so blurry. I do not have this in hand yet to take good pics.

 

Doesn't look chinese to me, but WDIK?

 

There is a site that has hundreds of Chinese and Japanese marks that might help you though it can take some time. Gotheborg.com

 

Well, when you do get it in hand, send us photos of the items as a whole as well as a clearer photo of the mark.

Kind of looks like 信今 or 信令
Though can't really say with any certainty what the mark really is without a better photo.

 

George, could we see the entire item? That helps to find the mark, because books and sites usually have different pages devoted solely to Blanc-de Chine marks, Yixing marks, etc.

 

Chinese characters,x ling, 信令.
More pictures might be helpful.
In modern Chinese the term mean "signaling" and is used in telecommunications. Never saw it printed on a piece of pottery.

 

Possibly, yes, but those characters are shared in Japanese too. Plus Japan does have examples of similar pottery maker marks too.
For example this is the aoki mokube mark.
Obviously not the same mark though.

 

As for my offer of the characters in the first place.... I did give two options, and didn't bother to offer a translation for either, as I'm not convinced either one is correct. As I stated, I can't really tell without a better photo. Here's to hoping we won't have to wait too long. Feel free to tag me in on the new photos when they arrive.

 

The characters are Chinese. The Japanese adopted the Chinese characters (and call them kanji, to which they added the phonetic hiragana and katakana) but they are Chinese, 信令.
"Xin ling" doesn't mean anything in Chinese, other than what I mentioned.
And yes, it could be that the piece is Japanese and not Chinese. Seeing the whole piece would help. In that case, if Japanese, someone else might know what they mean.


[QCouch Potato Wannabe, post: 2417742, member: 14066"]Possibly, yes, but those characters are shared in Japanese too. Plus Japan does have examples of similar pottery maker marks too.
For example this is the aoki mokube mark. View attachment 263761
Obviously not the same mark though.[/QUOTE]

 

I apologize for not sharing pics of the item. The auction pics are just so darn crappy, I really dislike not having good pics before sharing.. I should have waited until in hand before asking questions, but will share when it arrives.

My hunch is also pottery makers mark Couch Potato. Found the site you referenced https://chano-yu.com/famous-japanese-potters-and-marks/

It has also been suggested that a direct translation could be direct "military command" in Chinese.

Other possibilities include, 信=letter, confidence, trust 令=make, to order, to command, 信令=Signaling, and for what it is worth translates to Japanese=shigunaringu=シグナリング

After a little more research for the piece, it does look to be Japanese rather than Chinese.

Thanks for all the feedback guys and gals.. Next time I will not jump the gun and wait until in hand before posting questions.

 

Sometimes even bad photos are still good enough for an identification. It's always worth posting the bad pictures, so long as you let people know better pictures will be forth coming when available.

shigunaringu=シグナリング
is a phonetic writing of the pronunciation of 'signalling' in Japanese.
It is a way in which Japanese write an English word in Japanese, sounded out using the closest characters they think best suits the word they are hearing, if the word itself does not already exist in Japanese.

Japan has a word for signal, but may not have one for the verb of the word, signalling.

The Japanese word for 'signal' is 信号 which is not a phonetic translation.

Sites like google translate, and several others, can translate words in multiple ways in the background of its coding. Direct character by character translation, good for a literal translation of each character, sentence/phrase translation, which is the most likely to provide the actual intended meaning being translated, or a phonetic translation, the least useful for an accurately translated meaning.

In Chinese and Japanese and several other languages as well, the individual characters have their own meanings, but when used together, can change the overall meaning massively. It is 'almost' always best to translate the sentence/phrase as a whole.

 

Got help for the mark from a forum member who wishes to stay anonymous, and thank you again

A 6" tall Shachihoko ( dragon fish ) made by Japanese potter 星合信令 Hoshiai Shinrei about 1930.
https://tinyurl.com/yyvoyzmf

 

Well, there you go, I should have had more faith in what I could see then as 信令 seems to have been correct all along.