Small asian Vase w/ Stamp

I found this small vase, which I am assuming is Chinese (I live in a large Chinese population however I have found some Japanese pottery as well so thats also a possibility) and I would love to know more about it, especially the maker whose stamp I have scoured the internet to find but with no success in both searching Japanese and Chinese stamps. I dont see a lot of requests for Asian identification here so I hope someone can help me who is more knowledgeable. Its a 3" tall small green glazed vase with a heron (or humming bird?) carved out with a clear glaze overcoat. Its got some crackling along the bottom of the vase which I assume shows some age to it. Thank you for your help!

The bird looks like a crane. Celadon glaze. Possibly Chinese, from the Longquan region. Looks fairly modern.
There's a useful list of oriental marks on the gotheborg.com website ( http://gotheborg.com/marks/index_marks.htm ), but this may be too modern for them.

NB. Celadon glaze often has cracks on production (especially modern pieces) as the Chinese see it as aesthetically pleasing, so that's not necessarily a sign of age.

Welcome Dannd to the Forum and, like you have found, it is often very difficult to work out what the mark on Chinese and Japanese pottery and porcelain is indicating.

This is especially the case with Japanese wares, as the mark is often a corruption of a Chinese mark and unreadable to native Japanese people even.

At least on this Forum we "have a go" and my "having a go" would lead me to suggest that this isn't a Chinese vase but more likely from Korea or Japan. I say that because of the colour of the clay on the foot and the impressed mark being where it is.

I don't think that it is very old but it is of some quality.

I don't think that it is going to help me but a clearer full image of the impressed seal rather than a large image of the whole base might be helpful if you are able to do that.

Thank you both for your quick replies! They are very helpful.

NaomiM, the glaze is only crackled along the bottom rim (as seen in the bottom side picture) not the entire vase, does that make a difference? Ive looked through that site but with no luck as to matching a symbol, it probably is too modern.

Studio-pots,

Here is the picture you requested.



Thank you both for your help!

Thanks for that - I can't be sure but it does look as if it could very well be the character for "Korea".

Yes, it could well be Korean. Often the decoration on their pots is incised and then filled with a lighter or darker coloured clay. Initially I thought the decoration of the crane, leaves and rings on this pot was coloured by the celadon glaze, but looking at it again it might be a darker clay, then coloured with the Celadon glaze, which would definitely point to it being Korean.
I agree with Studio-pots that the impressed mark looks more Korean than Chinese. - the Chinese tend to use a square ink stamp on their modern pots, and the Japanese tend have a column of 3 'handwritten' characters, but there is a lot of regional variation so it's difficult to be certain.
On balance, though, I'd agree with modern or at least 2nd half of the 20th Century Korean.

Thank you both for all your help! This was very informative and now got me researching Korean pieces!

It is just the other side of the pond from you............... if you can call the Pacific Ocean a pond!