What Do You Do When the Porcelain Marks Are in Japanese or Chinese?

Sometimes we find a piece of beautiful pottery or china, but the trademark on the bottom is in Chinese or Japanese. How is an English speaking person like myself supposed to figure out what in the world it means?

These sites may be just what you need to identify that vintage collectible china piece you've been wondering about.

Japanese Porcelain Marks
Marks on Later Chinese Porcelain


If you find a quality piece, it sometimes doesn't even matter if there is some damage to it. I kept this beautiful vase when we cleaned out an estate, just because I thought the artwork was so pretty. When I did the research and put it up for auction, we were surprised to find that it was a piece of Dark Woods Moriage porcelain, worth well over $100, even with the broken handles!

identifying porcelain, estate sales, vintage collectibles, Japanese marks, Chinese marks