I just acquired many pots looking for some identification.

Hey, I have just acquired a little over 75 or so, pots. Many of them are Chinese made from what I can gather but some have markings I'm not familiar with. Any help would be lovely!
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7.

And just to give you an idea of my great luck.....

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And that's not all of them! I'll spare you the rest. Except the one moment my wife captured of me.



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I had a link (pot chop dictionary) http://www.yamadori.nl/Bonsai_Schalen_Asia.htm but that seems to have been replaced.

Don't leave us dangling, how did your good fortune manifest itself?

The hanko site is moved to this one: http://bonsaipotplaza.com/

Peter

landerloos wrote:The hanko site is moved to this one: http://bonsaipotplaza.com/

Peter

Peter, thanks for that!

Joe, looks like a pretty nice haul.

The sixth pot looks like Yama-aki, more specifically Toshio Kataoka. The site above doesn't mention that the Kataoka family uses the name 'Yama-aki", which is really how their pots are known. You will see many pots listed as Yama-aki in the "Bay Island Bonsai Exhibit 2010" in the BONSAI forum.

Try this link for more detail on Tokoname. http://tokoname.or.jp/bonsai/catalog/maker-e.htm

Have fun!

Russell

Joe Hatfield wrote: ..... the one moment my wife captured of me.

Was this just before she clattered you one for messing up the living room floor?

Good haul. Let us know how your research into the chops went, and if any of them are priceless antiques remember that I've ALWAYS liked you!

landerloos wrote:The hanko site is moved to this one: http://bonsaipotplaza.com/

Peter

Thank you this will be very helpful.


Rick, I was looking on a classifieds web site for my area and searched the word "bonsai" like I do once a month. The posts that pop up are usually sub par so, I wasn't expecting much. Out of one of the 3 posts (and thats a lot for the norm') I see someone trying to sell the lot of pots for $150 or each pot at $5 -$10. After contacting the seller, he supplied me with pictures of a couple boxes of pots, "Nothing really to get excited about", I thought. After a few e mails he mentioned he had a few other things for sale as well as a few trees. "WOW now this is getting interesting", So we arranged to meet this past Saturday.

The drive took 1 hour 30 min. It would have been difficult to convince my pregnant wife to drag herself and my 5yr old son Tyler out for a long drive in icy cold weather but, I'm still riding on the "coat tails" of a birthday so, it was an easy card to play.

When I got there, he showed me what he was selling. It was well worth the drive. He was very generous on the pots he gave me. More then what I had thought. They range from 2 inches in Diameter to (brace your self) 2ft. I was very surprised with his generosity and bought the lot. He also showed me a few trees he was selling. If it wasn't for the lack of room in my car and the lack of funds in my wallet, I might have bought them all.

I also purchased this from him at a VERY good price. BAH! my camera just died. I was only able to get a couple pics. More to come later. It's a black pine.
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Fiona, She emphasized the word "vacuum" and "card board" many times.

Russell, Thank you for the information and the link. I'm new to pot identification and this is helping greatly.

Peter I think you are right about the 6th one.

The 5th one is a Sankyou

Found this site also.. http://bonsaipotplaza.com/world/bonsaiasia.html

landerloos wrote:The hanko site is moved to this one: http://bonsaipotplaza.com/

Peter

Thank you berry much (sorry Fiona, the devil made me do it)

Thanks for sharing your adventure with us. Now a word of advice if you don't want to spend the money you saved on the pots with a divorce attorney, plan on taking a loooooooooong time filling them

Try this link for more detail on Tokoname. http://tokoname.or.jp/bonsai/catalog/maker-e.htm

Thanks for that Russell.
Dale

Hi,

Wow, that's an interesting find indeed!

(Just thinking how my wife would have reacted to such news - well, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have bothered to take pictures documenting my delight, to say the least )

It would be great if you could also show a few pictures of some of the pots that these hankos belong to! Oh, and another thing - please no aggressive detergents when cleaning these babies, remember it's all about patina ;-)

Russell Coker wrote:The sixth pot looks like Yama-aki, more specifically Toshio Kataoka. The site above doesn't mention that the Kataoka family uses the name 'Yama-aki", which is really how their pots are known.

Interesting, that should probably be added to that site - AFAIK Yamaaki is the name of the kiln.

Best regards,
Stefan

Well done on your good fortune.

sulrich wrote:Interesting, that should probably be added to that site - AFAIK Yamaaki is the name of the kiln.

Stefan, "Yama-aki" is the "trade" or "pen name", and like you I assume it to be the family kiln. (Sorry if I'm telling you something you already know!)

My point, as you noted, was that the first site identifies the makers' names only. Not too many people know which Kataokas make "Yama-aki" pots (to confuse things even more, another Kataoka makes pots under the name "Seizan"), or that Takehiko Koie makes "Yamafusa" pots. If Boon had called the pots in his "Bay Island" show thread "Kataoka pots" no one would know who he was talking about.

The Tokoname list gives a little more detail, but only about Tokoname.

Russell

Rick Moquin wrote:Thanks for sharing your adventure with us. Now a word of advice if you don't want to spend the money you saved on the pots with a divorce attorney, plan on taking a loooooooooong time filling them

Well said sir! I am reading the posts with Heather right now and read yours out loud to her. She said you were a smart man and it was great advice. LOL

Hey Joe.

So how many pots did you end up with, but more importantly, how many are actually worth keeping?

Russell

I believe around 75 or so pots and 25-30 bottom trays. I would say all 85% are worth keeping. The other 15% will probably go to gift trees for "noob" friends and family.


I will get some pics up as soon as this camera finds his mate, the charger.

Nice haul Joe, I'm sure that you will find a use for most of them.
Interesting little tree by the way

Okk, Okk,
Simon

Here is a link to most of them. In case anyone wanted to see. ---------> POTS!

This also makes doing virtuals of trees in different pots a little easier if you use the images in some editing program