Pottery Translation

[ohmzoned]

Could someone please help translate or provide any information on the image below? I found this at a garage sale, and I am trying to figure out what is on the label.

Thank you so much in advance!

http://www.oh-no.net/remote/pottery.jpg

Please feel free to email me at ohmzoned@gmail.com

[jbradfor]

The name of the company (the bottom line) appears to be 上海西泠印社. I've never heard of them (no surprise there), but googleing them brings up lots of hits (all in Chinese).

The line on top I think is 光明硃砂印泥, which I think means bright vermilion ink -- the type of red ink-paste used to make the red stamps on Chinese art.

The middle line is 五两庄（？？ I'm not sure about the last one). 五 means 5, and 两 is a unit of mass, typically 50g in PRC. [This one threw me for a while, as 两 also means 2.]

So I'm guessing what you purchased is a container that originally held 250g （5 两) of the red paste-ink manufactured by 上海西泠印社 company.

Edited November 6, 2009 at 03:54 AM by jbradfor

[ohmzoned]

Thank you for the reply, would there be an English equivalent that I could possibly search for, or use to identify this company or piece?

Also, what does it say in between the two birds, above the company name?

Thank you!

[jbradfor]

Thank you for the reply, would there be an English equivalent that I could possibly search for, or use to identify this company or piece?

Check here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiling_Society_of_Seal_Arts

Note that this piece seems to be from the Shanghai branch.

Also, what does it say in between the two birds, above the company name?

Again, from top to bottom, the three lines are

光明硃砂印泥 -- the red ink-paste used for seals

五两庄(?) -- 5 liangs

上海西泠印社 -- Shanghai Xiling seal society.

[Guest Pipas]

五两庄(?) -- 5 liangs

i think maybe it's 重 then

[skylee]

It is perhaps a subtitute for 装.

[jbradfor]

Humm, same sound, different character. OK. A bit weird, but OK.

But what does 装 mean here in this context? CEDict defines it as "adornment / to adorn / dress / clothing / costume (of an actor in a play) / to play a role / to pretend / to install / to fix / to wrap (sth in a bag) / to load / to pack". The only meanings that seem somewhat relevant is "to wrap (sth in a bag)", where here 装 would mean something like "capacity" or "filled with".

[skylee]

Example - when a product comes in different sizes, say 50g and 100g, then they can be described as 50克裝/100克裝. Take a look -> http://www.google.com.hk/search?hl=zh-TW&source=hp&fkt=&fsdt=2547&q=100%E5%85%8B%E8%A3%9D&btnG=Google+%E6%90%9C%E5%B0%8B&meta=&aq=f&oq=

[X-Wangel]

You are right.Here,"五两庄"equals "五两装".It means that the box was filled with 156.25g "朱砂".In ancient China,one "两" equals 31.25g.

[jbradfor]

@X-Wangel

Something tells me that this container was not created in ancient China

So how can one tell when one 两 equals 31.25g, and when it equals 50g? Whenever I buy tea, I always assume I'm getting 50g for my 两.