177 No clear answer

No Clear Answer

Glenne and I seem to produce a fair number of blogs in which we explore a topic of interest to us and then tell you about our research.

Well, I started out on another hunt. I have shared with you my obsession with collecting reading figures, some for real and the tacky ones in a virtual collection.

From the Ridgeway Virtual Collection

I also have a small collection of made in Japan very small ceramic dogs. It started with one my mother-in-law owned.

You can see by the ruler, mom is about 2 inches and the puppy is one inch. It is not a quality piece but I thought it was fun and mentioned it to my sister who found me another.

Three puppies at their feeding bowl--just about 3 inches. It is hard to find low quality pieces this small. I think even at the thrift store, they may throw them out, but I have found or been given a few more.

I keep them all on a small table with another statue that is in the same scale. 

Getting back to my original point--It may be difficult to read, but all but one say "Japan" or "Made in Japan" in black ink. So I thought I would research the marks to see what I could find out.

There is some interesting history involved in dating Japanese ceramics. Japan has been making ceramics since Neolithic times. In the 17th century, the Dutch East Indies Company supplied Japanese craftsmen with wooden version of European pots and exported the porcelain versions back to Europe. After the 1860s, the Japanese began flooding with porcelain ware that was cheaper than the European and American products but equal in quality.

In a much earlier tariff war, the McKinley Tariff Act of 1891 ruled that imported items must be labeled with the country of origin. From 1891 to 1921 the Japanese items were labeled "Nippon," the Japanese word for "Japan." In 1921 the United States said the the mark must be in English, hence the word "Japan." The words "Made in" were added over time.  The one definite dating is the phrase "Made in occupied Japan," which runs from 1945 to 1952. 

So I thought I had a few facts straight then I found the articles:

HOW TO TELL FAKE NIPPON PORCELAIN FROM AUTHENTIC NIPPON

FAKE MADE IN OCCUPIED JAPAN BANKS

After reading numerous web pages and finding the experts could not identify many of the marks since many small factories were lost during the war. And I also learned that the color of the lettering does not help with the dating at all--unless it is a blue rubber stamp as in the image above.

So I still know that my tiny dogs have very little value--I did see 3 dogs on a leash for $10 on eBay, but would anyone buy it? But now I know there is no good answer to the date but as cheap as they are, I am thinking 1950s or 1960s. Anything more recent would say "Made it in China"!

More befuddled than Savvy Trish