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Miniature Hand-Painted Occupied Japan Porcelain Lady Figurine — Powder-Blue Muff & Gilt-Sprigged Skirt

$22.00 Only one available

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Mid-Century (1940s–1960s) Gilt, Porcelain / Ceramic Very Good
HDRF-VR-0039
A small hand-painted porcelain lady, perhaps three inches tall, in an ivory gown scattered with tiny gilt flower sprigs and a powder-blue fur muff held at her chest. Her hair is brushed up in eighteenth-century fashion under a tiny red cap. Made in Japan during the postwar Allied occupation — between 1945 and 1952, when American import law required pieces from Japanese kilns to be marked Made in Occupied Japan. The mark is hand-brushed in black on the underside of her hollow plinth, slightly smudged in the way these brush-painted marks tend to be. A modest little piece with quiet charm. Highlights
  • Era: Occupied Japan, 1945–1952
  • Mark: Hand-brushed MADE IN OCCUPIED JAPAN in black on the underside
  • Material: Hand-painted glazed porcelain with gilt accents
  • Subject: 18th-century lady with muff, on a small round plinth
  • Palette: Ivory, powder blue, soft pink, blonde, gilt; small red cap
  • Size: Approximately 3 inches tall — a curio-shelf piece
Condition Very Good. Intact with no chips, cracks, hairlines, or repairs. The hand-painted detail is fully present and the colors remain warm. Light wear to the gilt at the highest-touched spots — the hem of the skirt, the edge of the plinth — entirely typical for a hand-gilded piece of this age and entirely in character. A faint paint ghost across the back of the bodice from decades of careful display, and light age soiling at the underside.
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Miniature Hand-Painted Occupied Japan Porcelain Lady Figurine — Powder-Blue Muff & Gilt-Sprigged Skirt

Occupied Japan (1945–1952)

Hand-Painted Japanese Export Figurine

She came to us from the estate of a 91-year-old woman in Durham, North Carolina, where she had spent many years on a curio shelf alongside other small porcelain pieces of similar quiet character. The owner had moved south from the Philadelphia area earlier in life, and a small handful of her things made the trip with her — pieces that had been in the family long enough to be worth packing carefully, but modest enough to be lived with rather than locked away. This lady was one of them.

She was made in Japan between 1945 and 1952, during the seven-year window when American import law required the longer mark Made in Occupied Japan on the underside of every piece. The Japanese kilns of that period were skilled and prolific, and small hand-painted figurines like this one were one of their staple exports — sold through American gift shops, dime stores, and department-store china counters by the thousand. They ended up on shelves and étagères all across the country, where many of them stayed for decades. Hers stayed on a Philadelphia shelf, then a Durham one. The gilt has worn a little at the highest-touched spots, the way it tends to on hand-gilded pieces this old, and there is a faint paint ghost on her back from where she rested against a neighbor for many years. The brush-painted mark on her underside is slightly smudged. Small honest signs of a long, careful life.

Materials Hand-painted glazed porcelain with hand-applied gilt accents on the floret sprigs, hem trim, and plinth band; hollow base with original kiln vent.
Care Dust gently with a soft, dry brush. Avoid water on the painted detail and gilt. Display out of direct sun. Handle by the plinth, not the hands or muff.
From the Research Archives
vintagerose.us Catalog No. HDRF-VR-0039 • May 2026

Specifications

Dimensions
N/A
Weight
1 lbs
SKU
HDRF-VR-0039
For seven years after the Second World War, every porcelain figurine bound from Japan to the United States bore a particular two-word qualifier on its underside: Occupied Japan. American import law from 1945 to April 1952 required it, and Japanese kilns — many of them the same studios that had been quietly turning out colonial-revival figurines for the American market since the 1920s — picked up where they had left off, brushing or stamping the longer mark on every piece headed for the export trade. Those seven years produced a small mountain of decorative porcelain: salt-and-pepper shakers, courting couples, shepherdesses, gentlemen with walking sticks, ladies in muffs. This little lady is one of them. She stands on a small round plinth in an ivory gown, the skirt scattered with tiny hand-painted gilt floret sprigs and edged in a thin gilt band at the hem. Her bodice is the softest blush pink, her hair is brushed up in eighteenth-century style with a small red cap perched at the back, and a powder-blue fur muff is gathered at her chest — the kind of accessory that places her firmly in the courtly costume vocabulary these little pieces drew from. Her face is painted with the faint half-smile that Japanese export figurines from this period are known for, somewhere between attentive and dreamy. The mark on the underside is hand-brushed in black: MADE IN OCCUPIED JAPAN, slightly smudged in the way brush-painted overglaze marks tend to be on small pieces, and set just to the side of the open base. The hollow plinth construction is original — Japanese kilns left the bottoms of slender figurines open as a venting solution during firing, and the small ring of glaze drip just inside the rim is exactly what you'd expect from the kiln work of the period. Highlights
  • Era: Occupied Japan, 1945–1952
  • Mark: Hand-brushed MADE IN OCCUPIED JAPAN in black on the underside of the plinth
  • Material: Hand-painted glazed porcelain with gilt accents
  • Subject: 18th-century lady holding a muff, on a small round columnar plinth
  • Palette: Ivory ground, powder blue, soft blush pink, blonde hair, gilt floret sprigs; small red cap
  • Production: Hand-painted, hollow-base porcelain with original kiln vent
  • Size: Approximately 3 inches tall — a small curio-cabinet or shelf piece
Condition Very Good. Intact with no chips, cracks, hairlines, or repairs. The painted detail is fully present and the colors remain warm. Light wear to the gilt at the highest-touched spots — the hem of the skirt and the edge of the plinth — wholly typical for a hand-gilded piece of this age, and entirely in character. A faint paint ghost runs across the back of the bodice where the figure has rested against another piece on a curio shelf for many years; light age soiling at the underside, consistent with decades of careful display.

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