Jar

Object Details

• Description

  Early Pewabic jar: tall, ovoid.

  Clay: dense.

  Glaze: gray with an overflow of mingled blue and green; slight iridescence.

• 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 1918

  Pewabic Pottery, Detroit, to 1918 [1]

  From 1918 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Pewabic Pottery in 1918 [2]

  From 1920

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

  Notes:

  [1] See American Pottery List, L. 2605, 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

  The Peacock Room Comes to America [2022] (September 3, 2022 - ongoing)

  Art for Art's Sake (July 23, 1997 to January 24, 2008)

  The Peacock Room (May 2, 1923 to February 21, 2011)

• 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

• On View

  Freer Gallery 12: The Peacock Room Comes to America

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

  The information presented on this website may be revised and updated at any time as ongoing research progresses or as otherwise warranted. Pending any such revisions and updates, information on this site may be incomplete or inaccurate or may contain typographical errors. Neither the Smithsonian nor its regents, officers, employees, or agents make any representations about the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or timeliness of the information on the site. Use this site and the information provided on it subject to your own judgment. The National Museum of Asian Art welcomes information that would augment or clarify the ownership history of objects in their collections.

Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1910s, 1900s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, Pewabic Pottery

• Place

  Detroit, United States, Michigan

• Topic

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

• Culture

  Americans

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)

• On View

  Yes