Dish

Object Details

• Description

  Dish, low with curving sides, wide base, low foot sloping inward. Six spur-marks on base.

  Clay: white, resonant porcelain, oxidized orange where exposed along edge of glaze.

  Glaze: fine, clear, feldspathic; slight orange-skin texture; bluish-green aqua tint where it has collected in thickness just below mouth-rim on outside, and inside angle of foot-rim. Bearing edge of foot-rim unglazed; a few inclusion imperfections on inside.

  Decoration: painted in underglaze cobalt blue of deep tone and good quality in outline and wash. Inside: deep cavetto border within single lines, "three friends" design (prunus, bamboo and pine) with rocks and two kinds of plants; below this is a narrow border of conventionalized waves; a central medallion is a formal wreath composed of flower and leaf motifs alternating three times. The painting is careful and detailed in execution, although the design is bold. Outside: a typical "Imari" style scroll encircles the sides; below it a single line and a double line on outside of foot. A single line circle on base is about 1 cm. in from foot.

• Marks

  Mark: in underglaze blue on base in Chinese characters Ta Ming Ch'eng-hua nien chih, a copy of Chinese Ming reign mark of Ch'eng-hua period.

• Label

  Distinctively Chinese motifs appear on this carefully painted dish. The "Three Friends"--pine, plum, and bamboo--appear in a landscape setting around the cavetto; a band of waves frames the center of the dish containing a symmetrically organized garland of poppy flowers and leaves. On the base is a six-character copy of a Chinese Ming dynasty reign mark of the Ch'eng-hua era (1465-1487).

• Provenance

  To 1974

  Oriental Art, Benjamin J. Stein, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. [1]

  From 1974

  Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Oriental Art, Benjamin J. Stein, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. [2]

  Notes:

  [1] Freer Gallery of Art Purchase List after 1920, Collections Management Office.

  [2] See note 1.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Summer Whites: Japanese Porcelain (July 1, 1983 to March 15, 1984)

  Japanese Ceramics (June 22, 1982 to September 27, 1982)

  Japanese Ceramics (July 15, 1980 to June 21, 1982)

  A Decade of Discovery: Selected Acquisitions 1970-1980 (November 9, 1979 to May 22, 1980)

  Harold P. Stern Memorial Exhibition (April 18, 1977 to September 13, 1977)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Oriental Art, Benjamin J. Stein

• Origin

  Arita, Saga prefecture, Japan

• Credit Line

  Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment

• Type

  Vessel

• 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.

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• Date

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• Name

  Oriental Art, Benjamin J. Stein

• Place

  Japan, Saga prefecture, Arita

• Topic

  Pine tree, Cobalt pigment, Porcelain, Art, Arita ware, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Ceramics, Flowers, Bamboo, Reign mark

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)