Bronze Vase

Can you help identify this bronze vase? A friend gave the vase to me for helping to price items at their garage sale. At the time I said, "Are you sure you want to give this to me?" and they said, "Yes". All they knew about the vase was that their relative had collected Asian art. I thought the vase was beautiful but quickly set it aside and got to work on the garage sale. Later I discovered the vase was a real treasure.


When I first looked on the bottom of the vase I thought the mark was paper. Later when I examined the vase I saw it was a chop mark impressed into the metal. The vase is quite heavy about 20 pounds and measures 9.5 inches tall and 12 inches wide at the widest part and the top opening is 5.75 inches. The four handles flow subtly into the side of the vase.

I originally assumed the characters on the bottom of the vase were Chinese, later I was told the characters are Japanese. Someone from the Asian Art Forum translated the chop mark to the words below, but they were hoping someone who knows the Japanese language could make a better translation. They also felt the vase was made in the late 19th or early 20th century.



I believe the chop is eight Japanese characters impressed into the bottom, although the translation I was given only has six words. Do you know more about the chop or characters?

TO - ISLAND
TEI - ESTABLISHED, SETTLED
DO - COPPER
KO - FRAGRANCE, INCENSE
KAISHA - COMPANY, CORPORATION
SEIZO - MANUFACTURE


If you can help me in any way with more information about the vase I would appreciate it. The first photo is more true to the color of the vase, I lightened all of the other photos to show more detail.


I forgot to pack a couple of items, one made of cast iron I need help identifying and also a grouping of tiles, so I'll be posting about those coming up real soon. We have one and one half days left in our home and then no telling what the future holds for us, so stay tuned for some traveling adventures sure to come.