We have a LOT of lovely artworks, chinaware's and other creative works because we love hand-crafted art!
So, the attraction to this vase (for us) was the visual appeal (from one side anyway!), not whether it is in fact Nippon porcelain ... it just depends why someone collects these things, the art or the value or both perhaps.
Over many many years we seem to have far too much of these lovely items, so (sadly) some have to find new homes and this is one that we are prepared to part with.
This medium size vase presents itself as Royal Nippon but ....
Nippon porcelain (genuine) is very desirable to collectors. It was produced until the 1920's and became extremely popular and valuable, so out came the reproductions to 'cash in' on their popularity and this vase definitely is a reproduction, read about this further in this description. We picked this vase up from a deceased estate house auction (do they still have such things?) along with the other Japanese porcelain vase we have advertised (see it HERE), they came from the same house many many years ago, around the 1970's
DESCRIPTION:
Porcelain vase with closed side handles
Bright white porcelain base material
Opaque - hold it up to the light and you cannot see the shadow of your hand through the porcelain
Glazed both outside and inside the vase
The design has 'splashes' of mauve & green which look for all the world like they have been air-brushed! The primary design is pink & mauve/purple flowers and some additional artwork which looks a bit like a lion and below the central mauve/purple flowers is a design which doesn't seem to represent anything but looks a bit like a human face!
The hand painting is 'sloppy and blobby', the colours are not in the style of Nippon craftsmanship and the gold is patchy and dull - some parts of the artwork have gold, some have nothing at all where it should be.
From a distance this vase looks colourful and attractive ON ONE SIDE ONLY but look more closely and it is such a 'muddle' and not well done either! The artist was sloppy to put it mildly and this vase is far inferior to the other that we have.
So that design is very noticeable on one side of the vase, the other side looks like someone started a design and just stopped! It just looks incomplete.
The side handles look 'dodgy' too, leaning towards a Chinese design than Japanese
If you stare at this vase long enough, one gets the impression the artist had no idea what they were creating! - a little bit of this and a little bit of that here and there, like the Lion figure...that's a very Chinese add-on too
We have always felt that this must absolutely be a reproduction of Nippon porcelain, mainly due to this very poor artistic decoration.
Genuine Nippon porcelain was made by fine craftsman (actually probably a woman), known for their exquisite decorating skills. This porcelain vase is reasonably attractive (on one side) but look at it very closely and you can easily see imperfections in the artwork, we wouldn't expect this from a genuine Nippon vase.
There IS a makers mark or backstamp, we think this was added to create an air of authenticity - it failed! We looked into this backstamp aspect a long time ago and it seems that many Nippon porcelain items had no backstamp and this backstamp just doesn't match up with the decorative skill so we do not believe the backstamp is genuine ROYAL NIPPON.
The backstamp (Green/Grey UNDER the glaze, not just stamped on) reads:
ROYAL
(graphic of a world globe) which contains the word
NISHIKI
NIPPON
As is always the case with items of appreciating value, reproductions were produced trying to pass themselves off as genuine Nippon porcelain. We are pretty sure this is one of those reproductions. If someone knows better, then perhaps there is a bargain to be had here but we doubt it!
Anyway, as I said at the beginning, it is all about the visual appeal for us and this vase does that (even if only on one side!)
We would even go out on a limb on this one and declare this is a CHINESE reproduction, it has a Chinese feel to it! That is not to put down Chinese porcelain, which can be very beautiful too but Chinese "knock offs" are often so badly made!
NO chips
NO cracks
The vase stands 30cm or around 1 foot high
Diameter of the vase at the widest point is approximately 180mm or 7 inches in the "old speak"
Weighs 850g (quite a bit lighter than the other Japanese vase we are advertising)
In summary, it is a lovely porcelain vase (on one side) and looks very nice with a few colourful dried flowers in it but is it Royal Nippon? We think not ... if it was, this would be a bargain!
