Good scores at a bargain price, Tamrock.
The sake jug mark you’re showing is a slightly sytlised Japanese ‘jungin’ (chúnyín) 純銀 mark that literally translates as ‘pure silver’. Generally, these marks don’t always mean ‘pure’ in the sense of 1,000 fine silver unalloyed with copper, but the silver will be at least 900 fine and often 925 Sterling or thereabouts.
That style of mark was used principally in the Meiji era (1868-1912) and so sellers always make that dating claim. However, the mark continued to be used into the Taisho era (1912-1926) and very occasionally into the Showa era until about 1928 when an Ordinance required the use of decimal standard marks to precisely indicate the purity of the silver. Without a reign mark, there’s no easy way to tell.
The same or similar styles of mark were also used in Korea after it was annexed by Japan in 1910 through until 1945 (and generally without any purity indication for the silver) but there were almost no luxury silver pieces made in the Japanese Empire for its populace after 1938 when the Empire put its economy on a war footing. Again, no easy way to tell Korean items from Japanese ones, but I would expect your jug to be Japanese.
The jug is in the spirit of ‘wabi-sabi’ (侘寂) which is a Japanese tradition for the appreciation of beauty which is ‘imperfect’ or ‘impermanent’. So, the jug would have been deliberately tarnished before leaving the workshop and you therefore shouldn’t be tempted to polish it in any way. If the sake cups were sold with it as a set, I would expect them to be similarly tarnished… unless someone has polished them up without having an understanding of Japanese aesthetics.
“Vermeil silver” refers to silver which has been gilded by gold-plating… also known as “silver-gilt”. Often (and especially for functional items that weren’t simply decorative) only the interior was gilded since it’s usually less subject to wear.
