Storage jar

Object Details

• Description

  The jar has a forceful presence; it stands on a narrow base but has a wide mouth with short cylindrical neck above a high and even wider shoulder. It was shaped on the potter's wheel using impure, grayish porcelain clay, and when the potter turned the piece on its rim to cut the foot he also trimmed the body quickly all the way up to its widest diameter, in order to remove excess clay and make the vessel as light as possible. The broad cuts of the trimming blade are clearly visible on the lower body.

  The jar was probably decorated while resting on a wheel or turntable; the decorator rotated the piece while stroking on the decoration with a fat, floppy brush dipped in cobalt pigment. The two sprays of the fruit called Buddha's hand scroll vigorously around the upper body of the jar from left to right. A second brush dipped in iron pigment (wielded by the same person? or someone else on an abbreviated assembly line?) added the brown leaf-shaped accents.

  The jar was dipped into clear glaze which, because of a small percentage of iron, appears bluish, especially where thick. The interior is also glazed. For firing, the jar must have stood in a cool corner of the kiln since, although the upper body is well fired and the glaze is transparent and shiny, the glaze on the lower back and inside the footrim is dull and opaque due to a temperature insufficient to melt those areas.

• Provenance

  From the early 1980s to 1996

  Mrs. Keum-Ja Kang, the Kang Collection, New York, acquired in Seoul in the early 1980s [1]

  From 1996

  Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from the Kang Collection, May 21, 1996 [2]

  Notes:

  [1] According to notes in the object's record, Mrs. Kang acquired this jar in Seoul, South Korea in the early 1980s.

  The base of the jar bears a paper label with stamped cancellation signifying that the jar was cleared through appropriate government channels before being brought to the United States.

  [2] See Invoice issued by Kang Collection to the Freer Gallery on May 21, 1996, copy in object file.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Korean Ceramics (February 4, 1997 to August 7, 2011)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Mrs. Keum-Ja Kang

• Origin

  Haeju, Hwanghaenam-do province, Korea

• 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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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1900s, 1890s

• Name

  Kang, Keum-Ja

• Place

  Haeju, Hwanghaenam-do province, Korea

• Topic

  Cobalt pigment, Porcelain, Art, Joseon period (1392 - 1910), Clear glaze, Haeju ware, Korean Art, Ceramics, Iron pigment

• Culture

  Koreans

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)