This guide is meant to help identify what type of vintage cloisonne pieces you may have, their age and value.

I am a humble collector and seller of cloisonne; and have read everything I could about this topic over the last 8 years. I have bought and sold hundreds of pieces, and have my own small collection.

Favoring the more unusual yet still afffordable Chinese and Japanese free standing pieces. I also constantly browse this site and others, to see what's selling and for how much.

Japan came late in the production of cloisonne decorative items, around 1850. What they initially exported was a very close copy of the popular Chinese Export cloisonne items of that era; thus creating part of the confusion. 

Before then; Japanese metal workers designed very small cloisonne decorative panels; that were applied to the Samurai's sword guards, called tsuba. When Japan entered the Meiji era and finally opened all her borders for trade; the samurai were outlawed; and some of their metalworkers found a new avenue for their skills; export cloisonne pieces. 

BRONZE JAPANESE CLOISONNE TAZZA; 1880

Eventually, several master cloisonne craftsmen emerged in Japan, with highly skilled and unique renditions and designs.

Production of cloisonne in Japan had a golden age; between 1890 to 1920. Some fantastic artisans designed breathtaking pieces, many displayed in Museums or owned by wealthy collectors.

What you will usually find here on Ebay and other sites, is the more mundane vintage Japanese cloisonne items; with some rare exceptions.

JAPANESE KIDNEY CLOISON, REDDISH BROWN CIRCLE BORDER, AND GEOMETRIC PANELS; 1920

When looking for differences between Chinese and Japanese cloisonne; often, it is not the motifs themselves but the border and rim decorations or the plain enamel finish inside or underside the item that tells the tale. For instance, many Chinese boxes and vases are finished with a bright and smooth  turquoise blue interior. Japanese boxes and vases have an orange peel enamel texture and display a mottled dark green, yellow, grey or navy or blue enamel.

JAPANESE ORANGE PEEL ENAMEL; 1910s

CHINESE SMOOTH TURQUOISE ENAMEL; 1930

The vast majority of the older Chinese pieces have a ruyi border, a colorful scalloped design about 1 inch in width. Japanese pieces never have a ruyie border, instead they often have a fine chain of circle cloison in brick red, brown, green, white or blue enamel.

CHINESE RUYIE BORDERS; PIECES 1900-70s

You may recognise shapes as typical Chinese or Japanese; if you are familiar with the vintage ceramics exported from these countries, you will know that Chinese vases are usually bigger and heavier, with Western type proportions; while Japanese potters liked much smaller shapes; with odd angles and proportions, such as a fat squat body and long slim neck, or a melon shaped base with a tiny top rim.

Japanese cloisonne has a greater variety of types of cloisonne; such as ginbari, the brightly colored translucent enamel over stippled metal ground; akasuke or pigeon blood, the bright-red clear enamel applied to a textured metal base; goldstone enamel, with brilliant copper filings; base-taille which is a low-relief cloisonne application over translucent enamel ground; moriage with heavy textured enamel motifs over a plain backgound. 

There is totai cloisonne, applied to a ceramic body, this is seen with the dark-brown treebark type of finish, and the Kyoto studio colorful earthenware (top right). The early 20th century Japanese cloisonne pieces are designed with wireless cloisonne;  smooth opaque enamel designs fired without the metal cloisons. The ANDO company are masters at this type of decoration, where the motifs are usually scenic or floral.

Another difference is the finial on the cloisonne jar or pot lids: Japanese pieces often have a detailed brass chrysantemum or other intricate floral type of finial; Chinese items may have a brass or bronze foo dog, or a knob that is also covered with cloisonne; or a plain brass point finial.

Signatures or marks can be very helpful of course. The older Chinese 1900 pieces are marked CHINA (sometimes with reversed letters), the later pieces made during the 1920-30's are marked MADE IN CHINA. The mid-20th century and later items had paper labels and are not identified at all.

The huge Chinese cloisonne output of the 1950-1970 period varied a lot from the previous traditional decorations. Suddenly, we see very modern types of designs, some with unusual DECO geometric renditions. You will notice that all this cloisonne is machine-made with very clean and flat cloisonne surfaces.

MODERN CHINESE MACHINE-MADE CLOISONNE

The very early Japanese pieces either had a symbol of the maker on the base or they were not marked at all. During the 20th century, when cloisonne production in Japan was mainly done by a few cloisonne workshops such as: INABA, ANDO, TAMURA, HINODE and SATO; pieces were impressed MADE IN JAPAN with the company's name and/or logo on the base metal rim. Today, only a few of these companies remain in business.

I have recently seen here on Ebay several unmarked 'NEW' Ando cloisonne reproduction; sold by a Japanese seller. He claims the objects are antique but if you look closely, all the metal components are very bright with no tarnish whatsoever. They do have the ANDO quality and craftsmanship, but if you are collecting antiques; be cautious.

One ironic instance of misleading signature marks are very old cloisonne pieces with a large 2 character Chinese cloisonne mark on the base that reads 'The Great Ming' , those pieces are Japanese and have been documented in several reference books as such.

JAPANESE CLOISONNE BOWL WITH MING MARK;1890

Similarities greatly outweigh differences; motifs of birds, butterflies, flowers abound in both. As well as mythological figures, buddhist symbols etc. Dragons are often used, and these usually have basic differences; where as Chinese dragons have 5 claws and Japanese have 2, 3 or 4.

JAPANESE 3 TOED CLOISONNE DRAGON & CHINESE 5 TOED CLOISONNE DRAGON

As to why this should matter; because of the difference in values. Chinese cloisonne items abound compared to Japanese pieces and values reflect this. I get very uncomfortable when I see a nice recent Chinese vase or box described as antique Japanese, and there are bids for hundreds of dollars.

A law was passed in China in 1987 to stop the exporting of their valuable antiques; special permission is needed for this to be done legally. And this permission is rarely given. A word to the wise, Chinese antique cloisonne items maybe available in North America or Europe.

Do not consider buying from China: it's more likely you will see reproductions of antique cloisonne items than the real thing.

If you are trying to identify a piece before listing it; go ahead and email me some photos. I am always happy to help.

I have started a new website called idcloisonne.com; it will be up and running by the 12th of April 2009; it is full of photos and information; that I could not include here. Thank you for making this a worthwhile effort with your many emails and positive comments.

If you found this guide helpful and informative, please give your feedback. This makes the guide more accessible on the 'cloisonne' search pages.