Wooden tray covered with lacquer

Object Details

• Provenance

  From at least 1950 to 1954

  F. Low-Beer & Co., New York, N.Y., from at least late 1950 [1]

  From 1954

  Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Fritz Low-Beer (1906-1976) on June 2, 1954 [2]

  Notes:

  [1] The object was sent by Fritz Low-Beer to the Freer Gallery of Art for acquisition consideration prior to January 1951, see document confirming the examination of the object and approval by the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, the Commission of Fine Arts, and Katherine Rhoades in January, March, and April 1951, copy in object file.

  The location of Fritz Low-Beer’s company is noted in the document as New York.

  The collector and dealer Fritz Low-Beer had co-owned with Walter Hochstadter a gallery in New York in the 1940s, however, by the time the transaction took place he operated independently and resided in Rome.

  [2] See Fritz Low-Beer & Co.’s invoice, dated June 2, 1954, where the object is listed as “Circular wooden plate lacquered dark brown and pinkish-red with painted decoration of scrolls and probably conventionalized birds done in red, brown, and yellow.

  Said to have been found in Ch’ang-sha. Late Chou or early Han period,” copy in object file.

  The acquisition was published in “Oriental Art Recently Acquired by American Museums,” Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America IX (1955), p. 82, fig. 10.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Chinese Metalwork (May 9, 1993 to March 21, 1997)

  Chinese Art of the Warring States Period: Change and Community, 480-222 B.C. (September 30, 1982 to February 17, 1983)

  Chinese and Japanese Art--Lacquer and Paintings (August 18, 1967 to October 14, 1969)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Fritz Low-Beer (1906-1976)

• Origin

  Changsha, Hunan province, China

• Credit Line

  Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment

• Type

  Container

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  BCE 0s

• Name

  Low-Beer, Fritz

• Place

  Hunan province, China, Changsha

• Topic

  Art, Eastern Zhou dynasty (770 - 221 BCE), Chinese Art, Lacquer

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Containers