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Help please to establish whether the attached image is Chinese or Japanese and identity of artist. I have two paintings which were given to me by grandparents, appearently they were found in a tea chest! Any help is appreciated. Thank you

Chinese, painted in what's called boneless style (without contour lines), probably first half 20th century, possibly slightly earlier. The artist's name is Sun Jin 孫錦. Nothing pops up online about this person, but I am guessing from the name that this person comes from southern China, maybe the Hong Kong or the Guangzhou area.

The artist is Chinese, Signature and seal read,
孫錦　-　Sun Jin
Literature knows only one painter with this name,from the Qing period without any biographic details.

With regards,
I.Nagy

I'm fascinated by the seal. I consider that it is a very modern expression, particularly of the character 孫. I could find nothing similar among the seal carver's works of the Qing through to contemporary.

Dear Mikeoz,
I recommend you 丘譲二著　形でひく篆楷字典
Orig. 1933　ed.reprinted and enlarged by マール社
in 1983 -Very difficult to find in Tokyo book antiquariats -
In this dictionary there are some 40000 unusual
seal character forms -like this one - printed.The dictionary is
sought after by seal carvers as reference-aid
book.

With regards,
I.Nagy

Thanks for the reference. Several copies seem to be available on amazon.co.jp:

https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E7%AF%86%E6%A5%B7%E5%AD%97%E5%85%B8-%E4%B8%98-%E8%A5%84%E4%BA%8C/dp/4837304621/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1532832337&sr=1-1&keywords=%E7%AF%86%E6%A5%B7%E5%AD%97%E5%85%B8

Thank you for your replies. I have at last worked out how to upload the actual photos. Both I believe have the same signatures/seal. does the seal actually mean anything? I've had these paintings for about 45+ years, is there any way I can find any thing else about the painter. I suppose it's a big ask. But I really am intrigued how my grandparents came by these but I guess that I'll never really get to the bottom of it all. Thanks for all your help.

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