Jizhou ware tea bowl

Object Details

• Description

  Tea bowl: small flaring on low basal ring; gold rim. Lacquer stand.

  Clay: dense, buff.

  Glaze: dark mahogany red; splashed with blue and grayish-yellow, inside.

  Decoration: inside; blossom forms painted in brown-black.

• Label

  Japanese documents of the fifteenth century describe Jizhou tea bowls as "tortoise shell" because of the mottled texture of their glaze. This bowl combines the temmoku shape with pictorial decoration. Plum-blossom shapes cut from paper were stuck to the dark brown glaze while it was still damp; the second coating of glaze in a lighter color registered their silhouettes

• Provenance

  To 1913

  Yamanaka & Company, New York to 1913 [1]

  From 1913 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Yamanaka & Company, New York in 1913 [2]

  From 1920

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

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Pottery List, L. 2374, Freer Galley 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

  Black and White: Chinese Ceramics from the 10th-14th Centuries (December 18, 2004 to November 7, 2010)

  Untitled Exhibition of Ceramics (March 31, 1994 to March 6, 1995)

  James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art (May 11, 1984 to December 5, 1984)

  Luminous Shadows (April 1, 1982 to June 21, 1982)

  Chinese Ceramics (April 11, 1978 to September 4, 1980)

  Chinese Painting and Pottery (May 2, 1923 to March 22, 1943)

  Early Chinese Pottery and Scultpure, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1916 (March 6 to October 15, 1916)

  Untitled Exhibition, The Japan Society, February 1914 (February 1914)

• Previous custodian or owner

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

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  Jizhou kilns, Jiangxi 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

  1100s, 1200s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, Yamanaka and Co.

• Place

  China, Jizhou kilns, Jiangxi province

• Topic

  Tea, Charles Lang Freer collection, Art, Song dynasty (960 - 1279), Stoneware, Chinese Art, Brown and black glaze, Southern Song dynasty (1127 - 1279), Ceramics, Jizhou ware

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)