Tea caddy with landscape decoration

Object Details

• Description

  Tea caddy with landscape decoration. Ivory cover.

  Clay: dense, hard, gray-white. String-cut base.

  Glaze: cream, with transparent overflow of pale yellow; crackled. Interior unglazed.

  Decoration: in cobalt under glaze; incised lines around shoulder.

  A throwing crack, visible on the interior, was repaired by wiping the base, distorting the traces of the string-cutting mark on the base.

• Label

  From the early seventeenth century, potters in Satsuma province (modern Kagoshima prefecture) made fine white stoneware ceramics for warrior rulers of the province to use in entertaining and for obligatory gift exchanges. The warriors also commissioned a locally based artist named Tangen, who had trained in a Kano workshop in Edo, to paint delicate landscape designs on the white ceramics, using cobalt blue pigment. This decoration, which conveyed the subtle tonalities of ink paintings, became a trademark of Satsuma ceramics.

• Provenance

  Ikeda Seisuke (1839-1900), Kyoto [1]

  To 1900

  Bunkio Matsuki (1867-1940), Boston, to 1900 [2]

  From 1900 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Bunkio Matsuki in 1900 [3]

  From 1920

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [4]

  Notes:

  [1] According to Curatorial Remark 1 in the object record.

  [2] See Original Pottery List, L. 800, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

  [3] See note 2.

  [4] 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

  Landscapes in Japanese Art (February 2 to July 15, 2007)

  Untitled Exhibition, Japanese Art (October 3, 1947 to February 25, 1956)

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

• Previous custodian or owner

  Ikeda Seisuke (1839-1900)

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

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  Iso kiln or Sengan kiln, Kagoshima, Kagoshima 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, 1850s, 1680s, 1670s, 1860s, 1870s, 1660s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, Matsuki, Bunkio, Ikeda, Seisuke

• Place

  Kagoshima, Japan, Kagoshima prefecture, Iso kiln, Sengan kiln

• Topic

  Tea, Charles Lang Freer collection, Landscapes, Art, Ivory, Stoneware, Satsuma ware, White Satsuma type, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Ceramics, Meiji era (1868 - 1912)

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)