Neat pot

[jin-is-not-a-crime]

I was in a local second-hand market the other day, and this big pot immediately caught my eye; the price was right (cheap actually, shhh), I liked it, so I bought it. It's been used, but that adds to the charm for me. I think it's Tokoname, not that it matters; I like it anyway. But it would be nice to know more about it. There's a small stamp. Unfortunately, I cannot make out anything. Since I'm still learning about pots, I was wondering if someone more knowledgeable here could give me a clue

 

[Shibui]

You'll need to give a much better view of the chop (stamp) before anyone can make out details.
It appears to be cast construction but mass produced slip cast pots don't normally have a chop (maybe I'm completely wrong with that diagnosis too).
Most chops are also on the base of the pot where this appears to be on one side. Maybe those are important factors that someone recognizes and can give more background.

As you say, regardless of the provenance its a good and useful pot. All you need now is a tree that suits it

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

It could be an old Yamaaki pot. If you rubbed some flour or baby powder into the chop and photographed the characters it may be possible to ID. The clay body and shape is right. 1st Gen Yamaaki got started by replicating Chinese pots, and the old man used to put his chop on the front wall sometimes…which I think is kinda cool. It could also be a Chinese production pot.

 

[sorce]

Yum.

Sorce

 

[Tieball]

Nice looking pot. I like the distinction of the chop mark on the side of the pot. It’s an element of interest.

 

[rockm]

I also think this could likely be a Yamaaki. I don't think its high-end Chinese--the clay looks "wrong" for those. Higher end Chinese pots tend to have an "engobe" a sort of clay overglaze to make them look like higher quality clay. This one looks like similar to the gray clay that I have on a couple of Yamaaki-made pots. A clearer more detailed view of the maker's mark is needed if you a better ID. As said, rubbing some flour, white chalk, or something similar that can be washed off, can help make details more readable.

You could take a spin through here to see if you can locate the maker's mark:

Artist Marks and Hanko-Tokoname

These 3 galleries of Japanese, Chinese, and Tokoname Marks represent the sum total of my signature and chop database. There are over 1000 artist marks here, including the lions share of Antique Chi…

japanesebonsaipots.net

If you're on Facebook, there is also a bonsai pot identification group that might ID it for you:

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www.facebook.com

 

[jin-is-not-a-crime]

Hi guys, thanks for all the input; I will try to get better pictures of the stamp. I'll try the flour trick also; I also tried to play with it in a photo tool but couldn't get anything out of it yet. I forgot to mention, the guy who sold it said he thinks it's from the 1950s, so maybe that helps someone. It's quite a big pot, measuring: Length:320mm, depth:230mm, height 110mm

 

[jin-is-not-a-crime]

Well, I tried everything I could think of to make the chop visible, even looking with magnifying glasses used for watchmaking, but I think it's either too worn or never decently there to begin with. I had a look through that chop database rockm mentioned, but that's not really helping haha. I'm not on Facebook, so I can't pursue that avenue.

Thanks everyone! It will remain a bit of a mystery pot, which is fine, I bought it because I liked it, not because I thought it was something special, just was curious about the history