Posted 1 year ago
kwqd
(1183 items)
This sake bottle is about 5" high x 5" widest diameter. It is very thin porcelain, easy to see my fingers through it, and not marked. Claimed by the seller to date to the 1920s, but I think it is much newer. It has the greenish tint of celadon with no crackling to the glaze. Sake bottle is a guess. Only $.99, so worth some effort to examine and research.
Not sure what the animal is. It appears to be carrying or tipping the jar. The seller claimed "wolverine". Possibly a tanuki, or "racoon dog" which is a fairly popular theme for tokurri. I have not found a single example of a wolverine themed sake anything. Wolverines are only native to the extreme northern parts of the northern hemisphere, so not to be found in Japan, China or Korea.
https://sakura.co/blog/tanuki-magic-exploring-japans-raccoon-dog-folklore/
It shows some signs of use and may have been used as a vase at some point but cleaned up with a short soak in soapy water.
Update:
I found this etsy auction with a ridiculously inflated price and same claims of 1920-1930 manufacture and rarity of these pieces. Not sure where the original, dubious information for these pieces came from, but I find it very unlikely. What the bottle for the etsy auction had that is possibly useful is a string of cold painted Japanese characters on the back which are shown in image three of my post. Maybe a Kutani mark?
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1314589876/porcelain-figurine-wolverine-vessel-for
Isn't that the Coca-Cola bear? Just kidding.. nice find. A quick search reveals a few that say wolverine..
kuzuri (small ears) , i don,t think it is taisho, it is not signed , no crackle, but i don,t see well
Waki
Thanks, waki. You are right, no crackle. I did find a marked example and the mark is shown in image 3. It appears to be cold painted, so possibly scraped off of mine.
Beautiful sake bottle. Being white, the animal does look a bit like a polar bear
Thanks for your comments, dav2no1! Looks like there are only two sites for these and guessing one borrowed from the other. Doubt, wolverine since is it not native to any Asian country, except maybe Siberia.
Thanks, Jenni! It does, doesn't it!
Thanks for loving my sake bottle, mikelv85, Jenni, Drake47, fortapache, Blammoammo, Kevin, DejaVu2, dav2no1, Vynil33rpm, and Cisum!
Thanks, vcal and PhilDMorris!
Thank you kivatinitz and jscott0363!