ID this vase or tell me if it's not been fired?

Andrew Werby

If it were not for the photo of the potter's mark (which has a sort of old look to it) I would say that pot was raku fired and left unglazed on the body during the reduction or "carbonization" phase, with a raku "copper sand" type glaze applied to the handles. Raku copper glazes, especially matte ones, seem to lose their copperiness quite a bit over the years through oxidation; that's what those handles look like to me.

But, if it is a raku pot that was put through the now popular "post-fire-reduction-carbonization-process" with leaves, newspaper or whatever, then that means it was not made before the 1970s, at least not according to what I have heard and read many times, i.e., that Paul Soldner (a westerner) is who innovated that post-raku process sometime in the 70s.

The potter's mark sort of throws me off though. It has that 18th-19th centure look to it somehow.

Eric SpunMud

Also, to see if it's unfired, flick it with your fingernail (lightly). If it "rings" at all it has been at least bisque fired; if the sound is just "thud" then it is greenware and is about as structurally strong as dried mud.

Is that a perversion of the anerobic process (the relatively oxygenless area of an anagama furnace, for example)

I've learned this much it is the mark of a well known Danish potter: Michael Andersen & Son. The earlier mark.

But the glaze condition is nothing like any of the work I've seen from them.

Ah, yes! It rings. It is hard. But as I said earlier, the finish has worn off in places. I know it is old; it was on display in a local home for at least fifty years. It would have broken by now if it were greenware.

Have you seen this website?

explains that the mark was only used after 1st World War to 1930s. I think your pot has had some serious abuse - maybe it was in a housefire?.

Thanks for the link, Sarah. Actually I have learned they fired the pot but without a glaze. I found another vase of theirs in which they did the same. Gosh only knows why. It's just ugly.