Bonsai Pots:
Signed or stamped (not Japanese)
If anyone else ever reads this, I hope s/he isn’t too critical. A lot of these pots are small and probably not of much use except for companion plants. Or maybe some mame bonsai. But I’m fascinated by the detail in construction they exhibit, and I have a thought that it would be fun to have a representative bonsai container from each potter I know about, Silly thought, but consider the source.
| Eli Akins. Round. I bought this one from Eli at the 2016 ABS show, and I honestly don’t remember what I paid for it. Eventually I want to put my surviving boxwood in it for show. But, who knows? I did ask him which front he favored and followed that up with questions about foot-forward or space forward options. He said he doesn’t care. So, in the photos below you’ll see three possibilities, one of which I definitely don’t like, but each of which has a foot-forward orientation. C’est la vie. Round, three wide feet. One drainage hole, three tie-downs. February 2018. The pot now holds what should be a really nice shohin Japanese Maple some time in the future. Branching in a “southern oak” style is sort of set and ramifications now begin. |
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PHOTOS  .Front 1. Favored  Front 2. It’ll do.  Front 3. Not in favor at all.  Bottom  Signature. Pot number.  Interior |
| Eli Akins. Oval. I bought this one from Eli at the 2019 ABS Show. I have a little shimpaku semi-cascade that will go in it. It’s a fun little pot. it marked $55, but with the ABS member discount, I paid less than that. 6″ x 4 5/8″ x 2 1/2″ — 1″ at the low point in front. One drain hole, four tie-downs. |
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Eli Akins. Oval. |
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| Jim Barrett. Oval You know, this might be a rounded rectangle rather than a true oval. Hard to tell. I really like it, but I have no memory of when I bought it, nor can I find any records of its purchase. I assume I bought it on a FaceBook auction page. But who knows? 4.25 x 3.25 x 1.75 two drainage holes, no tie-downs. February 2018. This pot has held a little privet raft for a year now, and I might decide to keep it. Or I’ll put the little tree in a cheaper pot and sell it. Or I’ll sell this pot (with tree) in April at the ABS meeting. Time will tell. |
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| Sonny Boggs. 5 1/8 x 5″ Round Cascade. One of my best purchases on the Facebook auction pages. If my records are correct, I paid only $60.00 for this in August 2016. Typical cascade in that there are three “feet,” in this case carved out of the turned base. The glaze makes the pot, if you ask me, because the dripping dark blue gives each front a different look. My favorite view in the one that shows up twice in the photos below– the one with the somewhat elongated blue drip moving down the pot. Maybe some day I’ll have a cascade bright-colored flowering bonsai to put in the pot. Until then I’ll just keep it around. One drainage hole, four tie-downs. |
 Front 1  Front 2  Front 3  Front 1  From above  Signature |
| Sonny Boggs. 3.5″ x 1.25″ Round. I bought this one on the FaceBook 99-cent Auction page, December 2017. $26.00. I’m particularly attracted to the green and buff swirled glaze. There are three very wide feet, with double drain slots separating each from its neighbors. If I ever put anything other than accent plant in it, it will be a mame sized flowering plant. Or maybe a mame sized Japanese Maple. If I can get something like that, I would be very happy to see it in this pot, no matter what season. One drain hole, three tie-downs. |
 Interior and rim  Front  Bottom and signature |
| Sonny Boggs. 4 5/8″ x 2 3/8″ Round. $36 on the FB 99-Cent Auction page. December 2017. I like it. One drainage hole, three tie-downs |
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| Shawn Bokeno. Oval. I bought this on one of the Facebook auction pages in April 2016 for only $30.00. I’m not really sure this one is handmade, but it does have enough of an obvious irregularity to the oval shape that it could be. I also think there’s a faint trace of a nipper’s indicating it was slip cast. But I don’t know for sure. 6 1/8″ x 4 5/8″ x 1 3/16″ Two drain holes, no tie-downs. |
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| Shawn Bokeno. Rectangle. I bought this one directly from Shawn Bokeno’s Etsy store, something I’d not done before, in November 2017. It was “on sale” for $45.00, and I liked the looks of it for one of my maples. I don’t think this is hand made. Like there is on his oval I have, there appears to be one of those little “nipples” that’s a sign of a slip mold. On the other hand, the “nipple” has been rubbed almost off before firing on this one, and the slight warp to the sides makes me wonder. In any case, I like his glazes. I’m not sure how sturdy these would be in a colder climate, but I think this will be fine for me to use. The nature of this glaze, with the applied silver/gray drips, means it has two possible fronts. 6 7/8″ x 4 1/2″ x 1 1/2″ Two drain holes, no tie-downs. |
 Front 1  Front 2  Bottom |
| John Cole. Oval. 13 7/8″ x 10 1/4″ x 2 1/4″ I bought this one at his shop (Creekside Bonsai/The Garden Stop) in Nashville when Judy and I went up there to pick up akadama for the club. February 9, 2019. He gave me a 10% discount off the marked price, which was a nice thing to do. It’s a heavy pot, good thick walls. The color is bluer than the lighter photo of one front. Hard to get the right color in the dining room. I want to put the Crape Myrtle that’s in the garden (double trunk) in it this year and leave it a couple of years. 13 7/8″ x 10 1/4″ x 2 1/4″ Five drain holes, 12 tie-downs |
 One Front  Better Front?  Top. Thick rim.  Bottom  Signature and Creekside Logo |
| Ching Wen Chen. Chingwen Arts. Oval Cascade. This is another Facebook 99-cent Auction purchase. I paid $65.00, shipping included, in July 2016. It’s small, and I may never use it for anything other than an accent planting. In fact, I used it that way in the 2017 ABS show. It’s empty again, but I might put something in it if the mood strikes. I had a little trouble photographing it inside the house and getting the color right. The first two photos (Front 1 and Front 2) are about right, but maybe a little bit oversaturated. Outside dimensions: 4 1/2″ x 3 3/4″ x 4″ One drainage hole. |
 Front 1  Front 2  Bottom  Interior–Sort of |
| Erin. Square Cascade. I really like this pot! I got it through one of the Facebook auction pages in June 2016 for $55.00. The finish is just wonderful, and each of the four sides is different . I don’t know what the process is called, but it looks like the pot was burned in the kiln. I really like it! Like almost (all?) Erin pots, the stamp is on the inside of the pot, but this one also has a stamp on the bottom. Outside dimensions: 5 1/8″ x 5″ x 6″ (it’s not exactly square, but who’s measuring?) One drainage holes, two tie-downs. |
 Front No. 1  Front No. 2  Front No. 3  Front No, 4  Interior Signature/Stamp/Chop  Bottom  Stamp on the Bottom |
| Erin. Oval. |
 Front?  Interior. Usual Erin stamp. |
| Chuck Iker This little scoop is one I got when I bought a tree. Almost a freebie, but not quite. I bought two trees from Mike Lee’s legacy in February 2018, and the Seiju Elm was in this pot. I guess this is a tortoise-shell scoop? No idea really. But I sure like this pot! I’ll measure it eventually. One drainage hole, four tie-downs. |
 Scoop Left  Three-Quarter View  Back View  Scoop Right  Potter’s Mark No. 1  Potter’s Mark No. 2 |
| Marjan Mirt Marjan Mirt is a bonsai potter in Slovenia. I made a next-to-minimum bid on one of the FaceBook Auction pages in September 2017. No one else bid and I ended up with the pot, even though my $80.00 bid didn’t really reach the reserve bid amount. Mirt said he really needed to clear out his shop before starting any more new ones. Then I had to pay $50.00 shipping from Slovenia. At that, I’m really happy to have the pot to replace the cheap one I bought last year for the big Chinese Elm. This is a big improvement. Oval Outside dimensions: 16.5″ x 12″ x 3″ Three drainage holes, four tie-downs. February 2018. I just put a trio of Korean hornbeams in this pot as a grow pot for the group. It looks OK, but I’ll tweak the placement next year. |
 Front  Bottom  Interior. Potter’s chalk marks  Interior  Potter’s Mark |
| Byron Myrick. Oval. I bought this one from Byron at the 2015 Rendezvous. That gave me a discount, so I paid only $76.00 for the container. I really love the glaze, and I when I bought it, I thought I would use it for the root-over-rock trident I had growing on the Cook Hill slag rock. The tree died. So in 2016 I put the Sharp’s Pygmy clump I had styled In Rodney Clemons’s workshop at the 2015 Rendezvous in the pot. Then it died. So far I’ve been afraid to put anything else in it. Maybe next spring (2018). Ovals should have two fronts, traditionally speaking, but I have one I like best, so that’s the way I’ve labeled them. YAY. It could hold a pair nicely. Outside dimensions: 9 7/8″x 8 1/8″ x 1 3/4″, Two drainage holes, six tie-downs. |
 Back  Front  Bottom  Signature  Interior |
| Byron Myrick. Round. I bought this one from Jack Pierce at a monthly ABS meeting, and I think I paid $10.00 for it. After I bought it, he told me it was one of Byron’s early pots. That’s why I didn’t recognize the mark. The “M” is there, but I couldn’t recognize it as Byron’s mark. I had a little juniper in it for a while, but I’m not sure what I’ll do with in the future. One drainage hole, four tie-downs. |
 Front  Bottom  Interior  Signature (early form) |
| Byron Myrick. Round Cascade |
 Front?  Bottom with Signature |
| Byron Myrick. Round Semi-Cascade. I bought this one from Byron at the 2014 ABS Show. I don’t remember what I paid for it. It’s a little unusual for a round pot, at least according to the Japanese norm, because it has four feet. typically there are only three feet. We had a blowing wind in September 2017 and this one, with a privet in in, of all things, blew off one of the stands on the deck. I guess I’m lucky it just has a chip and wasn’t broken to glory in the fall. And this way I don’t have to choose a front for the pot; only two possibilities that won’t show the chip. One drainage hole, four tie-downs. Measurements later. |
 Front 1  The Chip!  Bottom  Signature |
| Byron Myrick. Oval I think I bought this one from Byron in 2015, but I have no memory of what I paid for it. I thought it would be good for a bridal wreath (Spirea) i had growing well in a box. Alas, the plant died before I could put it in this pot. In 2016 I put Azalea No. 1 in this pot; it stayed there for two years. The two “fronts” are different, my favorite showing more of the mile green, the other showing a nice incursion of the tan color that I think comes from the clay showing through the glaze. But I could be making that up. Two large drainage holes, six tie-downs. February 2018. I think I’ll put the little chinzan in this pot this year. I had Azalea No. 1 in it, but that one needs a bigger pot. This will be a good change for the chinzan; it needs more room to grow. And I don’t like it in a rectangle anyway. |
 Front 1
 Bottom  Byron’s stamp  Interior |
| Sara Rayner. Round I bought this one from Phil Fossaceca on one of the Facebook auction pages for $40.00 in September 2017. Made from a brown oatmeal clay, decorative rim top and bottom appears to be incised, four applied feet. Outside dimensions: 4 1/8″ x 1 11/16″ Two drainage holes, no tie-down holes |
 Interior  Front  Signature  Bottom |
| Richard Robinson. Round. I bought this one on one of the Facebook auction pages the last week of November 2018 because I wanted a yellow pot, and I liked this one. Mine was the only bid (the starting price), and no one else liked it, so I got the pot for $65.00. As it turned out, the pot isn’t really very yellow at all. It’s sort of ochre with a olive greenish under color and brownish highlights. It’s still a sturdy pot and appears well made, but it’s just not a yellow pot. One of the photos below, made in bright sunlight, looks sort of yellow, but the one made in the shade, on my little under-stair work table, shows the color more accurately. I do wish it was an oval, because I think my stumpy little trident will look good in something this color. Instead of having separate feet, this one has two openings in a ring that hangs below the base of the pot. I think there are four possible fronts for the pot, but I’m not sure whether have a gap or having a solid foot-rim at the bottom would be better. 7″ Round; 2 1/2″ tall. One drainage hole and four (!) tie-downs. |
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| Michael Thiedeman. Oval. I don’t recall when I bought this one, but I think I bought it on one of the Facebook auction pages. It’s very strong, well-fired, and I want to use it soon. Outside dimensions: 9 7/8″ x 8 1/8″ x 1 9/16″ Two drainage holes and 12 (!) tie-downs. |
 Front  Bottom  Signature
 Interior |
| Michael Thiedeman. Oval. I had one pot by Michael Thiedeman and liked it, so when I started looking for a pot for my Boxwood, I wrote him and asked about a small oval. He didn’t have what I was looking for at that time, but he did send me photos of a couple of others. I generally don’t like bag pots, but this one looked interesting, and the glaze with its maroon underglow made me think of a crape myrtle. So, of course, I got it. Two drainage holes, six tie-downs. February 2018. This pot has contained a crazy looking crape myrtle for a year now. I actually fits very well. I hope it’s still alive and will be beautiful this year. |
 Front  Interior |
