Imari vase, is this valuable? thinking of purchase

旧 萬里 - Looks like it's trying to say something like 'Old Made', second word could also be a surname, there are numerous translations, either way if it's trying to say 'Old' it probably isn't!

Edit - Doh! I was thinking it was Japanese, but it's not, it's Chinese and it reads 'Old Wanli' - so it definitely isn't old, almost certainly post war. I'm in Japanese mode lol, keep forgetting Chinese uses the same character set, the peaches should had given it away!

 

Agree, it looks recent Chinese.
Those peaches (immortality) are also Chinese.

 

well I am very confused. The Gotheborg site shows several versions of what looks to be the same mark, albeit with the add on characters in red; "bi jitsu". If you can see the pic (sorry) I'll post the link at the bottom. Scroll about halfway to the heading "Japan. Made in Japan." I mean it looks like the same 3 character mark.


heres the link:
http://www.gotheborg.com/marks/20thcenturyjapan.shtml#arita

 

Ok, yes looks like I have mis-read the first character on your vase, and it should be 伊 and not 旧. In which case we are back to Japanese and it says Imari. I'm no way near fluent and translating from badly formed marks isn't the easiest - that's my excuse anyway!

Which again brings us too - it's a modern reproduction, no antique Imari ware was ever marked Imari. Imari was a Western name given to this style (as it was shipped from the port of Imari).

 

oh that's how you know its modern? Ha ha. i didnt realize that.

 

It's like seeing 'Ye Olde' on something from the UK or US, when you see that, you know it isn't. There are exceptions of course, as some Chinese items are marked with earlier reign marks to honour that emperor, so a Qianlong piece could be marked with a Kangxi reign mark for example. In these cases you need to go by other factors. But for 20th century pieces it is generally straightforward as they don't look anything like the antiques.

 

yes of course. thank you very much very helpful

 

So in a nutshell, Ye Olde Imari with Chinese peaches.

 

Yep, it's very likely made in China. I saw a piece a while ago that said on the bottom 'Real Satsuma - Made in China' did make me chuckle.

 

Yes, many of these Japanese knock-offs are made in China, and they don't know exactly what they are meant to be copying. Nor do they care, as long as it sells.