Covered box

Object Details

• Description

  Round covered box; center panel of cover slightly recessed, base slightly recessed; one chip inside edge of cover.

  Clay: pale putty-colored, high-fired, hard, fine texture, resonant, but without transparency.

  Glaze: thin, clear, covers decoration on white slip on outside, inside of bowl and partial on inside of cover. Some deterioration on cover only, in the form of iridescent flaking over areas of heaviest concentration of blue. Both glaze and slip stop a little short of unglazed base.

  Decoration: painted in underglaze cobalt blue on white slip. Cover: center panel, containing an eight-petalled flower head, lies within a border of six petal shapes filled alternately with plant and geometric forms. Sides: six lotus petal panels filled alternately with leaf and concentric wave patterns.

• Provenance

  ?-February 1978

  Anonymous owner, method of acquisition unknown [1]

  February 1978- December 1978

  Freer Gallery of Art, Freer Study Collection, gift from Anonymous owner [2]

  From December 1978

  Freer Gallery of Art, transferred from Freer Study Collection [3]

  Notes:

  [1] See “Receipt of Objects Deposited,” dated February 16, 1978, copy in object file. The object was transferred from the Anonymous owner to the Freer Gallery of Art for acquisition consideration on February 16, 1978.

  [2] See Freer Study Collection card, SC-X-3a-k, copy in object file. Object is described as, “k. Annamese pottery blue and white box.” The Freer Study Collection card notes that this object was accepted into the Freer Study Collection on February 24, 1978, and was formally given to Freer Gallery of Art on December 20, 1978.

  See also offer letter from the Anonymous owner to Thomas Lawton, dated December 20, 1978, copy in object file. The letter states, “This note is simply to state that I hereby give to the Freer Gallery of Art the eleven objects that we discussed […].

  [3] See thank you letter from Thomas Lawton to the Anonymous owner, dated December 20, 1978, copy in object file.

  Research updated October 20, 2023

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Previous custodian or owner

  Anonymous

• Origin

  Red River Delta kilns, Hai Duong province, Vietnam

• Credit Line

  Anonymous gift

• Type

  Container

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1500s, 1400s

• Name

  Pope, John Alexander

• Place

  Hai Duong province, Vietnam, Red River Delta kilns

• Topic

  Cobalt pigment, Art, Later Le dynasty (1428 - 1527), Stoneware, Southeast Asian Art, Iridescence, Ceramics, Plants, Flowers, Lotus

• Culture

  Southeast Asians

• Object Type

  Containers