Antique Japanese Teacup-1000 Faces?

[Kaaren B.]

Good day, all. Today I found this in a small shop going out of business. This looks like eggshell porcelain, you can see through it even in the photo.

I can read the "Great Nihon Made" on the right, but cannot read the left-hand column characters.

Is this a 1,000 Faces design? I am not sure, as I have one other and it looks as if the one I already have has many more faces painted on it.

Any information on what the full mark says, and age, appreciated! Kaaren

[peterp]

The mark says "Nippon Kato made", whereas Kato is a family name, here probably a workshop...

I do not know about the decoration, but does Japanese porcelain have eggshell porcelain? With Chinese porcelain lots of porcelain is relatively thin and translucent, but it still is not eggshell. There is a short article in the Articles board, which tells how it is made. The clay body is shaved off to a large part. When holding one I'm afraid of breaking it with too much finger pressure, so thin is it.

[Kaaren B.]

After seeing your message about Kato, I did a search, and found many, many Japanese items described as eggshell porcelain.

I found one item nearly identical to my teacup, but it was listed as "Old Kato Famille Rose" (??), and some others quite similar, especially plates, that were Kutani.

I also found references to a Shubei Kato, and an H Kato, both porcelain artists.

However, the marks were all in blue. I could not find any in black. A search for black Japanese porcelain marks with or without Kato did not turn up anything. This mark, by the way, is over the glaze.

I also found references to "NPSK (Nippon Porcelain Shubei Kato) mini teacup and saucer set in fine eggshell porcelain . . . created by Nippon porcelain maker, Shubei Kato (1852-1903), who manufactured goods in the European style for export from Japan in the 1880's to early 1900s."

That was as much as I could find.

I guess I have another "mystery" item! Thank you for your help, as always! Kaaren