Jian ware tea bowl with silver band on rim

Object Details

• Description

  Tea-bowl with rim banded in silver.

  Clay: hard, dark grayish-brown stoneware.

  Glaze: thick, purplish-black finely streaked with silver color; iridescent; stops unevenly well short of foot in characteristic roll and drops.

• Label

  The tea-bowl shape called temmoku in Japanese originated at the Jian kilns in China's Fujian Province. In the imperial court of the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127), black- or brown-glazed Jian ware bowls were considered the best color and shape for enhancing the chartreuse color of the tea. In Japan, temmoku tea bowls were used in formal teas to serve honored guests. Crystallization of the iron in the glaze on this bowl has created an iridescent surface and the silvery pattern known as "hare's fur."

• Provenance

  To 1897

  Yamanaka & Company, to 1897 [1]

  From 1897 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Yamanaka & Company in 1897 [2]

  From 1920

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Pottery List, L. 460, 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

  Setting the Bar: Arts of the Song dynasty (October 14, 2017 - ongoing)

  Chinese Ceramics: 10th–13th Century (November 5, 2011 to January 3, 2015)

  Black and White: Chinese Ceramics from the 10th-14th Centuries (December 18, 2004 to November 7, 2010)

  Untitled Exhibition of Ceramics (March 31, 1994 to March 6, 1995)

  Luminous Shadows (April 1, 1982 to June 21, 1982)

  Early Chinese Pottery and Scultpure, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1916 (March 6 to October 15, 1916)

  Untitled Exhibition, The Japan Society, February 1914 (February 1914)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Yamanaka and Co. 山中商会 (1917-1965) (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  Jian kilns, Fujian province, China

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Vessel

• On View

  Freer Gallery 15: Setting the Bar: Arts of the Song Dynasty

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1100s, 1300s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, Yamanaka and Co.

• Place

  Jian kilns, China, Fujian province

• Topic

  Tea, Charles Lang Freer collection, Art, Stoneware, Chinese Art, Brown and black glaze, Southern Song dynasty (1127 - 1279), Iridescence, Ceramics, Northern Song dynasty (960 - 1127), Jian ware

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)

• On View

  Yes