Tea caddy in style of Zhangzhou ware

Object Details

• Artist

  Attributed to Kashu Mimpei (1796-1871)

• Description

  Tea-jar, bulbous pear-shaped. Ivory cover.

  Clay: hard, dense, grayish.

  Glaze: pale lavender-blue; broadly crackled.

  Decoration: in brown, green and white reserve, under glaze.

• Label

  A bushy-tailed mythical beast, flaming clouds, and plants, framed by dotted borders, comprise the Chinese-style decoration on this jar. The motifs are derived from cobalt-decorated porcelain jars and bowls made at southern Chinese kilns in Fujian province in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that became popular chanoyu utensils in Japan. The Mimpei pottery, a small-scale workshop operated by the cultivated son of a village headman, produced interpretations of various Chinese and Japanese ceramic wares. On this tea caddy, iron rather than cobalt pigment was used to paint the motifs, while cobalt dissolved in the glaze veils the entire piece with a blue tone.

• Provenance

  To 1899

  Bunkio Matsuki (1867-1940), Boston, to 1899 [1]

  From 1899 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Bunkio Matsuki in 1899 [2]

  From 1920

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

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Pottery List, L. 718, 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

  Seasons: Tea (February 5 to August 7, 2011)

  Seasons: Arts of Japan (February 5, 2011 to January 13, 2013)

  The Tea Ceremony in Japan XII (July 2, 2000 to February 4, 2001)

  Selections from the Japanese Collection (March 22 to November 29, 1999)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Bunkio Matsuki 松木文恭 (1867-1940) (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  Awaji island, Hyogo prefecture, Japan

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Vessel

• Restrictions and Rights

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• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1700s, 1710s, 1720s, 1770s, 1780s, 1790s, 1730s, 1740s, 1750s, 1760s, 1800s, 1810s, 1820s, 1830s, 1610s, 1650s, 1640s, 1630s, 1620s, 1690s, 1840s, 1680s, 1850s, 1860s, 1670s, 1660s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, Matsuki, Bunkio

• Place

  Awaji island, Hyogo prefecture, Japan

• Topic

  Tea, Charles Lang Freer collection, Art, Ivory, Stoneware, Mimpei ware, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Ceramics

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)