Topic: Need ID of Vase with Strange Mark

[blake77]

Hello,
           I could really use some help with identifying the maker of this strangely marked Art Pottery vase. I've had this vase since 1999 and I believe it is English. The vase has a lustreware body, with cream color top and beige bottom separated by a hand painted ring of flowers, berries & leaves. This decoration is definitely painted; there are no small dots to be seen under a lens as would be the case with a transferware pattern. The vase measures 8-3/4" tall and approximately 6-1/4" in diameter at widest.  The vase is marked on the base with what looks like an Egyptian style Cartouche with Hieroglific symbols in a rectangle on the base over what appear to be the letters ONAR C with letters missing before the O and a letter missing between the R and C. Beneath this appears to be the word STUDIOS. Inside the rectangle are numerous symbols including a vase, a bird a profile of a head etc. I am attaching photos of the vase.
  Any ideas or information on this piece would be truly appreciated. Thank you!

Sincerely, Blake
San Antonio, Texas

[antiquerose123]

Hi Blake, and welcome....

Gee....that is a tough one.  I wonder if TC, Sue, Anne, Orpheus (anyone else) would know....I can Google around to try...

[Sue C]

Hi Blake, if you could make out some of the symbols it might give us a clue, on this page is the heiroglyphic alphabet, lets see what we can do.
http://www.egyptgiftshop.com/pharaonic_egypt/hieroglyphics.html

[blake77]

Dear Sue C,   
                         I just asked you to take a look at this vase in my reply to you about the red speckled vase. It's nearly one am here so I'm not firing on all cylinders.
  I'm working on a better image of the symbols in the mark and will post the image when I have it right. The mark is so light that I am drawing it out and then will scan the image into a file. The symbols are not actual heiroglyphics, they just resemble a cartouche. For instance, at the very bottom of the mark there is a running or leaping rabbit with it's head pointing to the left. There is also a Nefertiti type profile, a vase, a bird, a turtle, a double loop handled covered dish or pottery lamp and what might be a candlestick or old fashioned key.
Thanks for the help and I'll try to get the image posted in the next couple of days.

Yours, Blake

[antiquerose123]

Ooooooo - do look forward to this. 

  Will be interesting to try to figure out....

[chloe]

Gosh that is an odd one (in a good way!).  I would have put money on it being a transfer, but you can see clearly from the close up that it's not.

At the bottom of the Egyptian marks there are some letters - can you make out what they are? 

I know a lot of my English stuff, but have *never* seen a mark like that before.  And I like a challenge!!

[antiquerose123]

Me too -- I like a challenge too.  Did you get a closer pix?