Help with Satsuma vase.

[heavenguy]

Hello guys.

Okey there is an estate sale this weekend and saw this really nice satsuma vase. Only problem is that when i got there it was turned into a kerosene lamp.

When I ask the estate sale organizer about the vase she said it was not a vase, According to her they used to make this type of kerosene lamps back in the era. I really have my doubts about that. I never seen one myself or read in a book about satsuma kerosene lamps.

My first clue was that the handle where you raise the cotton burner has an American name. I'm not sure bout they didn't make this type of lamps back then. Although I'm not an expert on this Maybe they did imported kerosene lamp parts and make lamps out of them but I really doubt that.

My concerns are that if I buy this lamp that the vase will be damaged or they cut the vase to turn this into a lamp. The height  of the vase is really short for a vase like this so you guys think they cut it? any ideas of they made kerosene lamps out of Satsumas, I know they made lamps but that was much later and it was people who turned them into electrical lamps.

the price of the vase is really high., so if i buy i at least want part of my investment back and hope its worth it. that is the only pic i can provide. it looks satsuma in real person.

any help I will really appreciate it.

[Stan]

This is a vase that was turned into a lamp at a later time and the satsuma vase looks old, if the price is right I would buy it.

[heavenguy]

Hey Stan,

Thank you for the quick reply. I ended up buying the lamp at half price so the kick in the guts wasn't that hard. Now that is in my hands I have a chance to examine it and it's really a nice high quality piece.

It has a complete system HINKS BOLER #2 DUPLEX OIL BURNER, complete with base and oil comparment so that alone saves at least half the investment.

I did not remove the top metal part because I may damage the top gild I only inspected part of it and it feels porous so it was probably cut although I'm not 100% sure.

I thought I was going to end up finding some type of mark on the bottom but as you can see from the photos it doesn't have any. any idea on the age??? You can see that it is some type of red earthenware, maybe is because  the exposed part has already oxidize to an extent but who knows.

the only sign of marking i found is a small tag that fell of from the inside of the vase. I know they used to put some import stamps on the ware. This one says something like 1255 Etmk and the bottom part is damaged but the last words I can distinguish are ize?

anyways. unmarked  satsumas are usually low quality pieces but thats almost true for most early century export ones. This one, the quality speaks for itself.  I'm not sure about this piece, the age, or the creator.

Any thoughts on this one???

thank you in advance.

[heavenguy]

more pics

[heavenguy]

more pics

[heavenguy]

and the last pic, here you can see where the snap was originally

[Stan]

This is a nice find, it is getting very hard to find early satsuma earthenware, not being signed is a good thing, it tells us that it is before 1868, before that Japanese porcelain was very rarely signed, the decoration and the bottom both point to Edo period mid 19th century or earlier and because these were never signed the hole is not that important, I think it does not take that much from the value, It was probably made into a lamp in America sometime in the late 19th century or early 20th century, vases like these are becoming very hard to find  and the values are escalating because of rarity.

[heavenguy]

Hey Stan,

Thank you so much for your info. I was kind of scare at first but now I'm glad I took the risk and bought this vase. All the Japanese stuff I have is from late 19th century and early 20th so I wasn't too familiar with that old Japanese ware.

Thank you very much for your info and have a great night.