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Snake Box - Japanese or Chinese?

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MyMysteries's items4 of 4Maharani on elephant?Old Tile (framed) with an oriental scene
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    Posted 10 years ago

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    MyMysteries
    (4 items)

    Hi All - I am hoping someone can help me figure out where and when this box is from. I originally sent a pic of the markings on the bottom to a Japanese friend and was told it was Chinese - then I showed it to a local Chinese person and they said they thought it was in an ancient lettering and they could not read it as it was a language from before their time. I recently sent a pic to a Chinese antique dealer and he said it is Japanese - very strange..... If anyone has info that could shed some light on its background and age - I sure would appreciate it.

    Thanks!

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    Comments

    1. TubeAmp TubeAmp, 10 years ago
      http://fengshui-astrology.blogspot.com/2008/01/snake-6th-animal-sign-of-chinese.html

      T A
    2. MyMysteries, 10 years ago
      That is super impressive :-) Thank you so much!!!
      Any idea what it says on the bottom or how old it is?
    3. TubeAmp TubeAmp, 10 years ago
      You are very welcome! No, sorry, you're on your own ;)

      T A
    4. MyMysteries, 10 years ago
      Hi all - can anyone read what is written on the bottom of the box - or have any idea how old it is?

      Thanks!
    5. Sunnybrook Sunnybrook, 10 years ago
      Those are some research skills!
    6. Parrotbeak Parrotbeak, 5 years ago
      Old post, but I've not worked with this script before so I was interested to try. This is Chinese, written in the Shu?wén or small seal script. There's wikipedia articles for it, so I'll leave the details to those and just say that while the script is very old (one might notice the letters are close to pictographs), it is still in use in specific circumstances, like pottery markings.

      https://gotheborg.com/marks/20thcenturychina.shtml

      This particular mark is almost identical to the You Xian Ju Jianzhi mark and I do think that's what it is, but the fourth symbol doesn't match. On this box, the fourth symbol is https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%99%94 . So instead of "supervised the production" ( https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%9B%A3%E8%A3%BD ) it reads one of two things by my best guess. Either the symbols are interchangeable and mean the same thing in this particular instance (I can find no proof of this whatsoever, but it wouldn't be the first time I've been blindsided in a situation like this) or it means "produced with great respect (=care)". I'm inclined to the latter.
    7. Parrotbeak Parrotbeak, 5 years ago
      *Shuowen. Macron-ized vowels get turned into "?"s too, apparently.
    8. apostata apostata, 3 years ago
      You xian ju jian zhi -----Manufactured under supervision of the Leisure Retreat

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