Oriental snuff box - help identifying hallmark needed

[prdaniels]

Hello forum members, my first post!

OK, so you'll see in the images that I'm trying to identify a hallmark on this oriental snuff/cigarette box. Unsure if it is silver or silverplated.

I know very little about the item - it's been handed down from my grandmother (who is Scottish/Australian) and she was born in 1917. But of course it may pre-date her or she may have bought it. The lining appears to be cedar. The hallmark is on the underside of the box. One thing is that the hallmark is raised rather than stamped/embossed.

I'm very interested in learning the history of the piece, especially the region it is from. My gut says Chinese rather than Japanese, but I gather that's no great insight since silver was a lot more abundant in China.

Apologies if I'm inadvertently revealing mountains of ignorance with these questions and bits of information, I'm indeed quite new. I found out recently it's in the blood though - a first cousin a few generations ago was a silver and goldsmith, even doing work for Faberge!

Thanks in advance, kind wishes,

Paul.

[dognose]

Hi Paul,

Welcome to the Forum.

Although visually the piece appears that it may be plated or perhaps made of paktong, I think more information may initially be found in the Far East section of the forum so I'll move the topic to there.

Trev.

[davidross]

Welcome to the Forum.

While I am sure that no intentional slight is implied by using "Oriental," this is a word that has no real linguistic equivalent in the regions it is supposed to refer to. The many different peoples of the Middle East or Asia have ever applied such a monolithic, broadly collective term to themselves, to their hundreds of different languages, or to their diverse cultures. Its strongest historical association is with the objectification of an alien "Other" during the centuries of European and American imperialist conquest and subsequent military and economic domination leading up to WWII. Today, usage of this term is largely pejorative, and hopefully it will vanish completely.

That said, the mark on the box is 船山, which is a common enough Japanese surname, usually phoneticized Funayama. I have found no information on this maker. If this is the only mark on the box, then as Trev has already indicated, it is almost certainly not solid silver. A photo of the bottom of the box would probably reveal much about its manufacture and composition.

Without knowing the dimensions of the box, it is hard to say much more, but from the photos, it does appear to be a cigarette box (as you say), the kind that came into vogue in the decade after WWII, and were mass-produced in Japan to cater to the GI and export trade. At the time of its manufacture, the design of dragons and waves would have been very old-fashioned and had very little appeal to the domestic market.

Of course, if the box bears other marks, these conjectures may prove false.

Regards,
DR