Tea-leaf storage jar with four lugs

Object Details

• Description

  Tea-leaf storage jar. Large, ovoidal; four small loop handles.

  Clay: hard, sonorous, gray.

  Glaze: dark seal-brown glaze, with slight metallic iridescence, over brown underglaze; orange mottling on shoulder.

• Provenance

  To 1900

  Yamanaka & Company, New York, NY, to 1900 [1]

  From 1900 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), given by Yamanaka & Company in December 1900 [2]

  From 1920

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

  Notes:

  [1] See Object file.

  [2] Curatorial Remarks, from an exhibition label, September 1983: Freer received this jar as a gift for Christmas, 1900, from the Japanese firm of Yamanaka and Company, one major source of the East Asian ceramics that he had collected over the preceding decade.

  [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

  Storage Jars (March 15, 2014 to June 28, 2015)

  Zen, Tea, and Chinese Art in Medieval Japan (December 13, 2014 to June 14, 2015)

  Storage Jars of Asia (October 29, 2000 to March 10, 2002)

  Studies in Connoisseurship 1923-1983 (September 23, 1983 to March 1, 1984)

  Untitled Exhibition, Japanese Art, 1946 (May 3, 1946 to October 6, 1947)

• Previous custodian or owner

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

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  probably Guangdong province, China

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Vessel

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1400s, 1300s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, Yamanaka and Co.

• Place

  China, Guangdong province

• Topic

  Tea, Charles Lang Freer collection, Art, Stoneware, Chinese Art, Yuan dynasty (1279 - 1368), Iridescence, Ceramics, Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644)

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)