Jar

Object Details

• Description

  American, 20th century, Early Pewabic

  Jar

  Clay: dense, thickly molded

  Glaze: mottled brown and greenish cream, with an are of pale green; iridescent

• Label

  The Pewabic Pottery was a ceramics workshop in Detroit established at the turn of the century. The primary aesthetic interest of its founder, Mary Chase Perry Stratton, was the art of glazing, or "painting with fire." Stratton's friend and patron Charles Lang Freer fostered her efforts by providing fragments of ancient Asian pots to emulate. Her mature works are clearly inspired by the surfaces and shapes of ceramics in Freer's collection, particularly the Islamic pottery known as Raqqa ware, with its distinctive iridescence. The surfaces also resonate with paintings in Freer's collection by James McNeill Whistler, Thomas Dewing, and Dwight Tryon.

• Provenance

  To 1914

  Pewabic Pottery, Detroit, MI, to 1914 [1]

  From 1914 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Pewabic Pottery in 1914 [2]

  From 1920

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

  Notes:

  [1] Object file. Present location of voucher unknown.

  [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

  Dewing’s Poetic World (November 27, 2019 to May 29, 2022)

  Pewabic Pottery (November 20, 1979 to March 5, 1981)

  American Paintings: Abbott Handerson Thayer 1849-1921 (December 11, 1976 to April 18, 1977)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Pewabic Pottery (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  Detroit, Michigan, United States

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Vessel

• Restrictions and Rights

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1910s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, Pewabic Pottery

• Place

  Detroit, United States, Michigan

• Topic

  Charles Lang Freer collection, Art, American Art, Iridescence, Ceramics, Pewabic ware

• Culture

  Americans

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)