Mystery item

[Ubaranda]

Hi all!
I am from Russia. This is my first post on the forum. I have an interesting mystery item. I think it's the Asian thing, but from where - I don't know. Maybe someone knows what is it and what is its origin? I would be grateful for any tips.

[oel]

Hi welcome to the forum, could be an oil-lamp.

Oel

[Ubaranda]

Thank you. I also think that this is an oil lamp. But I want to know the origin and age. Silver 1000 is used only in Japan, but the hierogliphs are not similar on Japanese.

[dragonflywink]

Hi - might just be me, but there appears to be an '8' in your '1000'.....

~Cheryl

[Ubaranda]

Unfortunately it seems to you, because it's not a good photo, but there really is "1000"

[davidross]

I am quite certain that these marks are not Japanese or Chinese, and I would be quite surprised if this item were of Asian origin.

Sorry that I can't offer a better hint than ruling out the Far East.

Regards,
DR

[historydetective]

Okay, my friend thinks I'll embarrass myself, but this looks for all the world like a neti pot, which is an ancient Ayurvedic technique for washing the sinuses. Solid silver is antiseptic, so having a silver one is genius, as there have been several deaths in the USA news recently from using tapwater in plastic neti pots - the water contained the parasite that is able to bore through the blood/brain barrier, causing a fatal brain infection. There is a picture of an antique ceramic neti pot in the Wikipedia article below, so why not a solid silver one?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netti_pot
I do concede that the pouring spout that would go in the nostrils is a little oddly flared if the purpose is nasal irrigation.

[Theoderich]

we have seen this marks some times before but we have no solution

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=21642&p=50542#p50542

[Ubaranda]

Indeed, the same marks, but no solutions... :-(. Mystery item!

[davidross]

The heart-shaped dish posted two years ago by Dartsil has some form of Cyrillic writing (Serbian?) engraved around the edge that may provide the key to determining country of origin.

Regarding the purpose of this vessel, it might be useful to know how much liquid it can hold. I was wondering if it might have been used to give medicine to an invalid.

Best,

David R

[AG2012]

Let`s think this way,based on earlier post with the same mark:
1.The alphabet is not Latin
2.Must be Cyrillic or Greek
3. Only Greek alphabet has H (eta), N (nu)
No confusion with ``lunate`` sigma (C): it was used during Middle Ages (the object posted earlier is a remake of the medieval vessel I suppose).
Must be Greek

[davidross]

A quick image search for "ancient Greek oil lamp" turns up several items that look very much like this, albeit made in clay and many centuries older.

So it seems that AG2012 is correct about the country of origin, and Oel about the use.

Regards

DR

[Ubaranda]

Hi all!
Now I have no doubt that this is an oil lamp, but I still think it's from the Far East or South-East Asia. In the alphabets of these countries there are many characters, similar to the marks on my lamp. For example, Japanese and Tamil alphabet:




Best regards,
Alex.

[davidross]

Hi Alex,

You have kindly provided images of the 46 hiragana and 46 katakana used in modern Japanese, but there are some obsolete historical kana. Then there are 2,136 standard characters (or pictographs) taught to all Japanese students by age 18, and about 2,000 additional characters used in modern newspapers, for a total of 92 kana and about 4,000 characters in current usage. But that's just the tip of the iceberg! Please have a look at Morohashi's Dai Kan-Wa Jiten, the definitive Japanese dictionary of Chinese characters, which contains over 50,000 different characters in its 14,000 pages.

In other words, if you pore over all 50,000 characters in the Japanese and Chinese written languages, you are bound to find several that will appear vaguely similar to the marks on the base of the oil lamp.

I can only reiterate what I have already stated: these marks are not Japanese and are inconsistent with Japanese silver hallmarks. (And the same goes for Chinese.) Please look carefully at the many other threads in this forum in which Japanese items have been identified and compare the hallmarks with those on the oil lamp.

As for Tamil and the numerous other languages of Asia, I leave it to people with expertise in those areas to aid in the process of elimination and rule them out, one by one. . . . .

Good luck,

David R

[AG2012]

Actually,I was not searching for similarity of letters only, but having seen clear КОНСТА....inscription, it is obvious a Greek name Constantine.
It is Greek.

[historydetective]

There is no dispute that the shape is VERY obviously inspired by an ancient oil lamp, the type used not only in Greece but in Israel and all over the ancient world, but have you seen a Victorian-or-slightly-later-era cigar lighter, for instance? I own a British sterling example from Edwardian times that is shaped just like this and is about this size. The only thing is there is a tamping rod in the lid area, and an insert in the spout opening for a wick or other apparatus to provide the conduit between the flame and the fuel. The opening in the spout of this piece is wide enough to have accommodated such an insert. Actual oil lamps from the 19th and early 20th centuries had been improved with innovations designed to improve safety.

[Ubaranda]

I think the arguments of "davidross" and "AG2012" are very convincing and we must admit that this subject - a Greek oil lamp. Now I see that my initial opinion of the Asian origin of this subject was a mistake. Many thanks to all, and especially "davidross" and "AG2012".
See my future posts.
Best regards to all,
Alex.

[dragonflywink]

Please see this post regarding this mark: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=54106


~Cheryl