Object Details
Description
Jar, cut down; tall wide-mouthed; deep contracting foot. Gold lacquer repairs.
Clay: dense, soft, brownish.
Glaze: lustrous gray, with brownish and reddish areas; crackled and pitted. Rim ground off and foot unglazed.
Decoration: painted in under-glaze brown: two peony sprays.
The glaze is not celadon, but was intended to be a clear porcelain-type glaze that was tinted gray by poor refinement of raw materials, with the areas of red resulting from uneven firing atmosphere. Under Glaze, deleted Celadon after Lustrous gray.
Label
In its original form this jar was half again as tall and bore four lugs on its shoulders beneath a narrow mouth. Jars of this type are excavated in Japan. The reason for the careful removal of the (presumably) broken top of this jar and grinding down of the shoulder to make a smooth edge is explained by the similar treatment of a Cizhou ware bottle now in the Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya, repository for the collection of the Owari Tokugawa warrior house. That bottle, of similar shape, has been ground down at the same level around the shoulder, and Tokugawa storeroom records from the first half of the nineteenth century describe the piece as a mizusashi (freshwater jar for use in the tea ceremony). A narrow mizusashi is required for use in tea gatherings of the tenth month. Fitted with a lacquered wooden lid, a damaged Chinese bottle could be cleverly salvaged for that purpose.
Provenance
To 1901
Siegfried Bing (1838-1905), Paris to 1901 [1]
From 1901 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Siegfried Bing, Paris in 1901
From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]
Notes:
[1] See Original Pottery List, L. 942, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
[2] See note 1.
[3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Previous custodian or owner
Siegfried Bing (1838-1905) (C.L. Freer source)
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Date
1279-1368
Period
Yuan dynasty
Accession Number
F1901.63
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
Vessel
Medium
Stoneware with iron decoration under clear glaze; gold lacquer repairs
Dimensions
H x Diam: 20.4 × 18.3 cm (8 1/16 × 7 3/16 in)
Origin
Guangdong province, China
Related Online Resources
Google Arts & Culture
See more items in
National Museum of Asian Art
Data Source
National Museum of Asian Art
Topic
lacquer
ceramic
peony
Yuan dynasty (1279 - 1368)
tea
China
stoneware
Chinese Art
ceremony
lacquer repair
Charles Lang Freer collection
Link to Original Record
Record ID
fsg_F1901.63