Topic: Chinese ashtray?help please.

[keith]

6 inches across,can't find this mark anywhere,quite a bit of wear on the unglazed base
any ideas?
       Keith.

[antiquerose123]

Hi Keith:  never seen a base like that.  The Bird on the inside looks like the *Rising Phoenix*  -- I think.  Are those Chinese letters in the second photo, or the initials JH ? Or could be either, depending on how you look at it.

found this when I goggled- from the search page, but it did not work for me:

On the Origins of Pottery
by PM Rice - 1999 - Cited by 29 - Related articles
Fire-cracked rock an- tedates pottery at coastal sites in Japan (Ikawa-Smith, 1976, p. ...... Barbour, M. G., Burk, J. H., and Pitts, W. D. (1980). ...
www.springerlink.com/index/P22U3T834477N37Q.pdf - Similar

or at:  http://www.springerlink.com/content/p22u3t834477n37q/

So could this be Fire cracked rock-an-tedates pottery from Japan??? (or just fire-cracked)?

some Reading (maybe) here:  http://factsanddetails.com/japan.php?itemid=693&catid=20&subcatid=129

Or Raku Pottery due to the cracks? http://www.newton.k12.in.us/art/3d/images/rakuhistory.pdf
Scroll down to near the bottom to see a Grey Raku vessel

This is all though to me...just guesses

[keith]

Thanks Rose,the Japanese pottery link is very interesting,think this is Chinese, will have to get the big books out,ta,
                                                                  Keith.

[Crispin]

I always try my Asian bits on here:

http://www.asianart.com/phpforum/subforum.php?sfid=4

[keith]

Can't get the link to work,is that the asian art forum?if so that was my next 'port of call'
           Keith.

[Anne]

Link's a bit slow but it loads after a few seconds.

[keith]

Thanks Anne,it was the forum I use sometimes,

[antiquerose123]

Found anything there yet?

[keith]

Not yet Rose been running around of late and scraping my pennies together for the local antique fair in Birmingham,a bit of retail therapy as they call it,

[Mosquito]

The mark is very weird - it's not a Chinese character (Hanzi). While it looks a bit similar to 王 (Wang), the tail on the bottom is not a recognisable stroke. My Lao Po informs me that no Chinese person would write like that!

I have a feeling the piece may be Japanese rather than Chinese (though that doesn't explain the character). I've seen nothing like it in my Chinese reference books so far.... 

[keith]

Thanks 'M' will have to get out the Kanji dictionary(Japanese) had a look a while ago with no luck,