Reticulated blanc de chine hat stand/lamp

[Stan]

Hi Peter, I just picked these up, the Antique dealer said these came out of his grandmothers estate and the tops and bottoms were in such bad shape he took them apart, they were lamps, he said he thought that they are early republic, the only thing that concerns me is the number on the bottom each on has two sets of numbers the first is 11 and 31 the second is 19 and 36, it is possible that these were numbered so they could be put together in the united states, the holes in the bottom are glazed so they were made that way, my question is have you ever seen early republic porcelain numbered this way, and could you tell me how old you think they are, thank you for your expertise, I will include 16 photos for viewing, thanks again.

[Stan]

Here are more photos to view.

[Stan]

More photos to view.

[Stan]

Last set of photos, thanks for your viewing and your expertise.

[peterp]

Basically, I know of numbering only later in the 20th century, on porcelain which was made in a factory setting. I would think second half of 20th century. The glazed hole also may point to such a time.
Do you see a line along the middle (vertical) that points to molding?

[Stan]

I can see horizontal lines that look like it was turned, I can not see a vertical line, looks like it was turned and then carved, from the inside you can see small areas where the porcelain caved a little from the tooling, the dealer said that the top was made out of celluloid  and the cord was so old that it needed to be replaced so he took it all apart, It sounds like it might be a little older than mid 20th century, the ones I have seen on ebay are not as detailed as this one.

[Stan]

One other thing, could the numbers be for the top and bottom, assembly numbers so when they were exported they could match the number for identification to the top and for the base, Im just speculating but sounds feasible, also the tooling is for sure, this was definitely carved.

[peterp]

Stan, the age was an assumption based on the presence of the numbers and holes. I know of the presence of numbers only from PRC era items, and I know of no antique Chinese items with holes made especially for lamps. In addition, if it were a Chinese antique, I would think it would have to be from Dehua kiln.

I'm afraid, however, that I have to correct my previous assessment; I did probably draw the wrong conclusion.
It is more likely Japanese.

Chinese items like this usually have no or a low foot rim.  I have never seen such a high foot rim on an upright Chinese object, being it a vase, hat stand, or whatever.
In addition, the band decoration along the top rim and the base are of the Japanese type. Sorry for having overlooked this. Being Japanese would also account for the numbers and glazed hole in the base, I think.

[Stan]

Thanks Peter, I suspected Japanese based on the numbers, but then I saw similar ones on ebay that say they are Chinese, but now that you point out the high foot rim, that makes it to be more  likely Japanese, thanks for that good bit of information about the high foot rim.