Object Details
Description
Early Pewabic jar: tall, ovoid.
Clay: dense.
Glaze: gray with an overflow of mingled blue and green; slight iridescence.
Label
The Pewabic Pottery was a ceramics workshop in Detroit established at the turn of the century. The primary aesthetic interest of its founder, Mary Chase Perry Stratton, was the art of glazing, or "painting with fire." Stratton's friend and patron Charles Lang Freer fostered her efforts by providing fragments of ancient Asian pots to emulate. Her mature works are clearly inspired by the surfaces and shapes of ceramics in Freer's collection, particularly the Islamic pottery known as Raqqa ware, with its distinctive iridescence. The surfaces also resonate with paintings in Freer's collection by James McNeill Whistler, Thomas Dewing, and Dwight Tryon.
Provenance
To 1918
Pewabic Pottery, Detroit, to 1918 [1]
From 1918 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Pewabic Pottery in 1918 [2]
From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]
Notes:
[1] See American Pottery List, L. 2605, 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
Exhibition History
The Peacock Room Comes to America [2022] (September 3, 2022 - September 14, 2025)
Art for Art's Sake (July 23, 1997 to January 24, 2008)
The Peacock Room (May 2, 1923 to February 21, 2011)
Previous custodian or owner
Pewabic Pottery (established 1903) (C.L. Freer source)
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Date
ca. 1918
Accession Number
F1918.163
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
Vessel
Medium
Glazed earthenware
Dimensions
H x W: 62.4 x 31.2 cm (24 9/16 x 12 5/16 in)
Style
Pewabic ware
Origin
Detroit, Michigan, United States
Related Online Resources
Google Arts & Culture
See more items in
National Museum of Asian Art
Data Source
National Museum of Asian Art
Topic
iridescence
ceramic
Pewabic ware
United States
earthenware
glazed
American Art
Charles Lang Freer collection
Link to Original Record
Record ID
fsg_F1918.163