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Subject:Re: Need help with ID
Posted By: Bill H Fri, Oct 12, 2018
The impressed characters on the base indicate your teapot is a product of the Jinmen Kiln (Jinmen Taoci - 金門陶瓷) from Jinmen, a.k.a. Quemoy Island, off the coast of China's Fujian Province. The island is administered by Taiwan.
The item is a "basket-handle" or "Tiliang" teapot, indicated by the line of characters just below the island & lighthouse logo to be a reproduction of one made during the Ming Dynasty's Longqing reign (1567-1572). The bottom line starts out "Republic of China" (Zhong Hua Min Guo - 中華民國), a term which was reapplied to governing bodies in Taiwan after World War II ended in 1945, at which point the island had been a Japanese colony for 50 years. The remainder of the bottom line is a bit indistinct, but I believe it may say the pot was made in 1956, or two years before life on Jinmen was interrupted by a brief military conflict between Taiwan and the PRC in 1958.
I have a mid-1970s vintage tiliang teapot of this type and decoration from Jinmen that I bought from a Jinmen outlet in Taiwan's port of Kaohsiung in 1976. That one has a white base with underglaze blue markings applied by decal. Such pots were hot sellers with American military and civilian personnel in Taiwan at the time, and I seem to recall paying more than $100 for my pot, which was billed as a museum-quality repro. I've since found glazed pottery versions at estate sales for much less.
See the link for a past forum discussion of a possible Mainland-made tiliang teapot, as well as pictures of the one I bought in Taiwan.
Best regards,
Bill H.
URL Title :Jinmen Teapot
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