✅ SOLVED Please Help Identify Japanese/Chinese Teacup & Saucer

[chadkeath]

Hi and thank you in advance for your help. I’m trying to figure out this teacup and saucer. It is very light weight, fragile thin porcelain. Has hand painted Geisha scenery. Has what reminds me of glow blue, as the dark blue has flowed into the white porcelain area. It has a marking on back that is painted. It’s a beautiful piece. I’m trying to figure out age and possible who made it. Any help is appreciated.

 

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[Red-Coat]

Very nice. This is what’s known as ‘eggshell’ porcelain and the cup has the mark for ‘Tashiro’ as 田代.



The company was started in 1878 by Tashiro Ichiroji in Nagoya, Japan as ‘Tashiroya’; was later known as ‘Tashiro Shoten’ (Tashiro Company); and then ‘Tashiro & Co. Ltd’ until production stopped in 1954. They mainly produced porcelain for export, hand-painted in their Yokohama studio (sometimes by Kutani trained artists) but the actual pieces were made in either Arita or Seto.

I don’t know what the mark on the saucer is, but perhaps it’s the mark of an individual artist. Nevertheless the date for these pieces (with that Tashiro mark) will likely be around 1920-1930.

You mentioned “glow blue”, but I think perhaps you mean “flow blue”, which was a very specific type of decoration and almost always on ‘transferware’ where the pattern was applied using a paper stencil. Occasionally you will see it on hand-painted pieces, but that’s not the case here.

 

[Red-Coat]

PS: Looking more closely at the decoration, I think it possible that the cup and saucer don't 'belong' together but have been married up at a later date based on their similarity. As I said, I don't recognise the mark on the saucer (I'll do a bit more checking) but I would think it at least has a similar origin and age.

 

[chadkeath]

I appreciate all the help. I would have never known. I appreciate it.