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An acquaintance of mine presumed I was bright enough to know what this mark says. He believes it is Yixing but didn't provide a photo of the pot. Rather than disillusion him, and since the image of the mark is fairly decent, I would appreciate it greatly if my seal-script gurus in the forum could take a look at it. The best I can do is think the right-hand character looks somewhat like a zhuanshu version of 業 (Ye-'Enterprise'), but that's short a stroke or two at the bottom.

I've added two identical images, with one contrast-enhanced. For all I know, they could be upside-down.

All help most welcome,

Bill H.

I read it;
曾封　-　Zeng Feng

With regards,
I.Nagy

Dear Bill,

I don't think your right about the first character, and anyway, it's way too indistinct. However, I can identify the second character (and no, they are not upside down)

Feng 封。

Is there any chance your acquaintance could either take a better photo of the mark, or maybe make an impression of the mark in something like plasticine and photograph that.

The crudeness of the seal mark would make me doubt this is actually a product of YiXing. Somehow I expect more pride in their identity from the YiXing potters.

Best wishes

Mikeoz

With great respect for I Nagy, I must disagree with Zeng. I have searched more than 100 examples of the character by seal carvers and could not find one where the 曰 had been replaced with 土 or 士.

I will keep searching. Hopefully better pictures might help.

Dear Bill H and I Nagy

Problem solved.

The seal reads Tong Feng. 童封.

Tong is a family name, but not as far as I can see associated with YiXing. Try one of the other three ceramic centres that produce red clay teapots.

Best,

Mikeoz

Thanks Mikeoz, I see where you're coming from, just want to check and see if you also saw this one, redrawn from a rendering of ceng/zeng, No. L11532, at hanziyuan.net. It also seems to be quite close to my aging eyes.

Much obliged,

Bill H.

Yes Bill, I did see that. The problem for me remains that the lower part of the character on the stone is quite definitely either 土 or 士. I will look further into the etymology to see if I can determine which.

Zeng/ceng in your example has 田.

Reading the notes in Wieger, and the notes in the same etymological group, it would appear that the element is 土 not 士. The way that element has been 'written' in that seal character is quite standard, even though the upper horizontal stroke is shown as long, with turned up extensions, while it is shorter in 土 than the equivalent stroke in 士.

Mikeoz, more plaudits are due. Your suggestion about red pots was prescient. However, I took the time beforehand to recheck a character I'd looked at before, '堇/jin/clay', but could not find in seal script. Turned out I originally was looking at a variant without a zhuanshu form, and when I finally found the right kaishu, and ran another Google query using 堇封/jinfeng and 茶壶/chahu, Eureka! I found several hits on a 2012 auction for a red pot with what looks like it is the mystery mark (see link). I've also uploaded an image of the mark and a graphic with seal and other script forms for the jin/堇 character.

Here's a the Chinese text and a loosely translated version of a description for the same pot I found on another site.

https://m.sohu.com/n/482191281/

清 堇封款朱泥壶

“堇封”两字方印，此款非人名，而是昔时文人作为封缄印使用的印章，钤于封口，表示慎重，其意似古代的封泥。之所以会出现在壶底，推测应系文人订制泡茶砂壶或文房砚滴时，提供钤印的就便之举。在1697年沉没于南非开普墩Table海湾的欧斯特兰号（Oosterland），其出水船货中，亦有类似的“堇封”印款。

「九瀚艺术」——东篱系列

Qing sealed red mud pot

The two-character mark of "Clay Seal" ” is square and is not a person's name, but a seal used by the former literati, meaning secured by the seal, signifying caution is due and serving the purpose of an ancient mud seal. The reason for appearing on the base of the pot, presumably would be that that the pot had been custom-made for the literati and the seal would caution care in lifting it. The ‘Oosterland’ (兰号),which sank in Cape Table Bay, South Africa, in 1697, had a similar "seal" 堇封 ” seal inits ship's cargo.

‘Nine Han Art’ - East Fence Series

I still have to say I couldn't have done it without you and I. Nagy as driving forces.

More obliged than ever,

Bill H.






URL Title :Jinfeng Mark Red Clay Teapot

Well, at least I got one thing right. The radical is tu 土.

Funny, once you had identified the correct character, I went to my main seal script dictionary and found eight examples.

But in our collective defence, the impression was so vague as to offer a number of possibilities.

I'm sure Gerald will be delighted to have the correct transcription.

It was fun trying to get it.

Mike

I'm not sure I would have gotten there if you hadn't come up with 'tong'. Everything about it looked good; only the void in relevant Google responses was left nagging. I got the impression that hardly anyone in China named Tong or Zeng would want this Feng character for a given name, due to its literal connotation of 'sealed-up' (like a tomb or a harem door). The other thing is that China seems to be reissuing all of these old marks on teapots and everything else, and the objects are constantly up for auction and under discussion in Chinese language forums.

But you're right about the fun part of solving this kind of whodunnit. I'm certain everybody involved is delighted, no one more than I am. :)

Cheers & thanks again,

Bill

I. Nagy & Mike Oz, you're both heroes of Herculean proportions in my estimation. I never wouldn't have come up with those characters on my own.

Very much obliged.

Bill H.

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