Japanese Makers Mark on Bowl

[notalot]

Hi,

New here but have been a long time casual reader.

Can anyone help identify the marks on this Japanese bowl. It is heavy (45ozt) and around 26 cm wide. Sadly quite bruised inside...

[davidross]

Welcome to the Forum.

That is a jungin mark, see Japan in the Guide to World Hallmarks:

http://www.925-1000.com/foreign_marks3.html

The mark would be in proper orientation if the photo were rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise.

Regards,

DR

[notalot]

Thanks for your help. That is brilliant.

The bowl is incredible. I wonder how they managed to get the the flowers to stand out so far. Did they start working the sheet from flat or do you think they cast a sheet into the rough form and then start embossing/chasing the details in. The flowers are almost 1cm from the 'flat', almost unseen with English or French repousse work.

[davidross]

That's an interesting observation about the manufacture of the bowl.

I am not very knowledgeable about repousse techniques, but there may be some insights from the articles posted in the Contributors' Notes under the topic Chinese Export Silver and the Far East Trade. For that matter, there are other contributors with far more insight, so you could always post a question about the technique under General Questions.

It seems very odd, if this is a centrepiece bowl, that it bears no maker's mark. Could you tell us what the engraving around the foot of the bowl says?

Cheers
DR