please help with small translation

[mamalurve]

Hi

My Dad left me a beautiful asian ornament when he passed away, I'm pretty sure it's chinese.

Could somebody please tell me what the symbols mean?

I would really appreciate if you would help me, my Dad knew what it said but he never told me and I would really like to know.

Here's a picture,

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f211/Dustycharm/IMG_2791.jpg

[skylee]

could you flip it over ?

[mamalurve]

oops! Is the writing upside down? sorry, try this one

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f211/Dustycharm/IMG_2791-1.jpg

[skylee]

Really not sure how to read it. But from the picture at #1, I imagine that the last two (read from right to left) could be 飛鳥 (flying bird).

[gato]

The first character on the upper-right is probably 豐 (simplified form: 丰). Does that make it easier to figure what's beneath it?

[skylee]

Re the picture at #1. This is my GUESS, which is very likely to be totally wrong -

On the right vertically - 林立人送 (if this guess is right then the last character is unfathomably reversed) - "From Lin Liren"

On the left horizontally from right to left - 飛鳥 "flying bird" (or "Asuka" if referring to an ancient period in japanese history)

[fulgentius]

It looks like seal script to me, in which case you'll probably have a hard time finding someone who can translate it.

(Of course I'm no expert by any means.)

[Lu]

I'm no expert either, but it looks like jiaguwen, the script that was used on oracle bones (is that the same as seal script?).

[fulgentius]

According to Wikipedia, oracle bone script is earlier, and eventually led to seal script.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_bone_script

If either of us are right, then presumably this is a very valuable item.