Japanese Porcelain Figurine

Porcelain is not my area of expertise, but I picked this up for next to nothing and figured why not. Can anyone give insight into the time period, manufacturer, worth, etc.

 

Quite often those were won in carnivals,or picked up for a dime in Woolworths. It could be from 1900-1950s. There are zillions of them out there.

 

That's what I thought, but figure I might as well check. Thank You!

 

Your little figurine is quite cute. My maiden and favorite aunt (RIP Aunt L.) had about two or three "dish gardens" in ceramic planters with live greenery plants and live moss over the dirt. One or two little figurines similar in size and origin (Japan) were placed in each "dish garden" peeking out from among the plants.

Thank you for showing the figurine. It brought back such sweet memories of visiting the old homeplace soooo many years ago as a small child when I entertained myself while the adults gathered to talk and catch-up with all the relatives (and some neighbors) who "came to call" when we were in town.

 

Aww great story. I think now, I'll have to do the same in one of my garden pots this year. Thank YOU for sharing!

 

MattF15, you are so very kind to indulge an old reminiscing woman.

 

My mother did the same thing, yttli! I didn't save them when we cleaned out her house because she had gazillions of them, but now I wish I'd saved a few.

Matt - if you click on "full image" your pictures will show up in the body of your post like this.

 

Hi,
My one grandmother had them also BUT in 1941 everything in her house that had Japan on it went to the dump. The worst was two matching 40" Nippon vases. I really coveted those. My grandmother never had anything Japanese in her house ever again. I had Japanese friends who wanted to meet my grandmother back in the 80s I unable to tell them that she would not welcome them in her house.
greg

 

My ex-husband's great-aunt had a beautiful Japanese vase that she couldn't part with, so she painted it black! It took me forever to carefully clean off the black paint. There was a chip on the rim that someone fixed poorly, but I keep it turned to the back.

 

That was one barmy aunty!

 

Beautiful piece. Definitely worth the rescue efforts!

 

They didn't want anyone to know they had a Japanese vase during the war.

Some of my ancestors came from Germany to the Mohawk Valley in NY in the late 1700s. When the Revolutionary war happened, they were conscripted by the English to fight on their side. After the war, their land was confiscated and they moved to Canada. There was a German enclave outside of Quebec made up of Hessian soldiers who were forced to fight and decided not to go back to Germany. They intermarried with the French Canadians. My mother always said her grandmother was German, but she had one cousin who refused to admit it. When they came to America from Canada, they changed their name from Schmidt to Smith so no one would know. WW II was a tough time for people with Japanese or German ancestry, no matter how far back it went.

 

>They didn't want anyone to know they had a Japanese vase during the war.<

So true!!!! Most Americans in the 1940s didn't want anything Japanese. Your aunt's actions were not unusual. There were many derogatory names for the Japanese like Jap, Nip to those rivaling those for Afro-Americans.

>My mother always said her grandmother was German, but she had one cousin who refused to admit it. When they came to America from Canada, they changed their name from Schmidt to Smith so no one would know. WW II was a tough time for people with Japanese or German ancestry, no matter how far back it went.<

Bev, your German ancestry history is quite interesting! I hadn't know about their Quebec connection. Gee, those of relatively recent German roots had a hard time during WWI. Many still with German accents were stones and their houses burned. It was common during that era for them to anglicise their names. Even King George V changed his family name of Saxe-Coburg something to Windsor during WWI. Saxe-Coburg was the surname of Prince Albert - husband of Queen Vic. At the outbreak of WWII, the father of a girlfriend of my brother moved his family out of town to live in the hinderlands of upper New England away from any town. His wife was a 1920's immigrant from Germany who still had a thick German accent. He feared for her safety because of the trouble Germans had during WWI. Thank goodness their wasn't quite as much anti-German hatred and violence during WWII, but Germans were still shunned and the children were teased at school. There was also a bushel of derogatory names for Germans during WWI & II running the gamut from Jerry, Kraut, to .....

--- Susan

 

In our little town we had a GBU which was a dance hall and had picnics and fireman parades and celebrations. It was the German Beneficial Union. The town changed the name to Greater Benefical Union but no one in the town ever stopped going there or ever gave the German families any trouble. Who would want to stop the turtle soup dinners????? However during the first war, my grandfather's cousin was visiting and got drunk at the bar and was bragging about the Kaiser being a really great man. Unfortunely going home he fell off a bridge and drowned. It was ruled an accident but with 5' side rails he would have tripped and flown over the rails.
greg

 

I joined the local German American Club here a few years ago because they have monthly get togethers with fabulous home made German food. Plus German oom-pah bands. It's loads of fun. Many are older than I am and have been here since after the war. Some actually joined the US military. We have to remember that not all Germans were Nazi sympathizers.