Tea bowl with design of cranes and maple leaves

Object Details

• Description

  Tea-bowl, inverted bell-shape; rough foot. Brown lacquer repairs.

  Clay: medium, fired reddish brown.

  Glaze: glassy, transparent, greenish gray; crackled.

  Decoration: blossom and maple leaves inlaid in slip (mishima).

• Label

  Many dark-bodied Karatsu wares perpetuated a Korean technique of decoration that involved stamping or incising motifs into the clay and inlaying them with white slip (liquid clay). Spare, asymmetrical designs, including the cranes and scattered maple leaves on this bowl, drew from Japanese pictorial sources, such as the decorated paper used for calligraphy handscrolls.

• Provenance

  To 1901

  R. Wagner, Berlin, to 1901 [1]

  From 1901 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from R. Wagner in 1901 [2]

  From 1920

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

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Pottery List, L. 874, 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

  Cornucopia: Ceramics of Southern Japan (December 19, 2009 to January 9, 2011)

  Freer and Tea II: Raku, Hagi, Karatsu (July 8, 2006 to January 1, 2007)

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

  Korean Influences on Japanese Slip-Decorated Ceramics (February 16, 1984 to November 9, 1984)

• Previous custodian or owner

  R. Wagner (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  Fukuoka prefecture, Japan

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Vessel

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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  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, 1670s, 1860s, 1660s

• Name

  Wagner, R., Freer, Charles Lang

• Place

  Fukuoka prefecture, Japan

• Topic

  Tea, Charles Lang Freer collection, Takatori ware, Art, Inlay (process), Maple tree, Stoneware, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Pottery, Ceramics, Crane

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)