Tea caddy

Object Details

• Artist

  Raku Tannyu (1795-1854)

• Description

  Tea caddy (chaire), cylindrical; hand modeled. Walrus tusk cover.

  Clay: soft, gray. Raku ware.

  Glaze: brilliant, iridescent, yellowish-olive over yellow; splash of gray-blue.

  Decoration: incised lines.

  Mark. Seinei [Jpn] (seal script, within circular enclosure)

• Marks

  Mark. Seinei [Jpn] (seal script, within circular enclosure)

• Label

  The eleventh head of the Kii house sponsored a garden kiln adjoining the Seineiken pavilion in his private villa, completed in 1834. The kiln was operated by Raku Tannyu, tenth head of the Raku workshop in Kyoto, but many pieces were made by the lord, his consort and relatives. This tea caddy in the style of sixteenth-century Iga ware is surely an amateur piece. Inventories show that the kiln was fired a total of only five times between 1834 and 1846, the year of the lord's death.

• Provenance

  To 1901

  Japanese Trading Company, New York to 1901 [1]

  From 1901 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Japanese Trading Company in 1901 [2]

  From 1920

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

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Pottery List, L. 976, 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

  Garden Potteries and Official Kilns: Clan-Sponsored Ceramics in the Edo Period (January 16, 1986 to November 3, 1986)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Japanese Trading Company (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  Wakayama 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, 1840s, 1690s, 1680s, 1850s, 1670s, 1860s, 1660s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, Japanese Trading Company

• Place

  Japan, Wakayama prefecture

• Topic

  Tea, Charles Lang Freer collection, Art, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Iridescence, Ceramics, Seineiken ware

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)