Fragment of an underglaze iron-brown-painted wall tile

Object Details

• Description

  Shape: Shard consists of a side fragment of a thick, mold-formed wall tile. The tile walls are straight, approximately 4.5 cm thick from the face of the tile to the back of the wall. The interior of the tile is hollow and of uneven thickness. The thickness of the tile from face to the hollow back is roughly 2.0 - 2.3 cm. Imprints of what appear to be fingernail marks on the inside of the hollowed-out back of the shard suggest that it was made by hand-forming in a mold.

  Clay: The body is composed of a fine-grained clay which shades distinctly darker near the face of the tile. It has few inclusions but many air pockets, some of them large.

  Glaze: The iron-brown underglaze painting is covered by a thin, uncrackled glaze. It is not clear whether the light background color is the result of a slip having been applied prior to decoration or whether the milky white ground is simply the color resulting from the glazing of the light-gray clay body.

  Decoration: The tile is decorated with iron-brown designs painted on a light milky background. The decorative motif consists of narrow inner and outer borders which enclose a band of white diamonds inside a wide, iron-brown panel. The vestiges of a curvilinear interior design can be seen but cannot be interpreted.

  Marks: None.

• Provenance

  To 1957

  Abu Ridho, Jakarta, Indonesia. [1]

  1957

  John A. Pope (1906-1982), Washington DC, gift of Abu Ridho, Jakarta, Indonesia. [2]

  From 1957

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of John A. Pope, Washington DC [3]

  Notes:

  [1] See Curatorial Remarks 2 and 3 in the object record.

  [2] See note 1.

  [3] See note 1. See also object file, Collections Management Office.

• Collection

  Freer Study Collection

• Previous custodian or owner

  Abu Ridho (born 1927)

  Dr. John Alexander Pope (1906-1982)

• Origin

  Red River Delta kilns, Hai Duong province, Vietnam

• Credit Line

  Gift of John A. Pope

• Type

  Architectural Element

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1600s, 1400s

• Name

  Pope, John Alexander, Ridho, Abu

• Place

  Hai Duong province, Vietnam, Red River Delta kilns

• Topic

  Art, Later Le dynasty (1428 - 1527), Stoneware, Southeast Asian Art, Ceramics

• Culture

  Southeast Asians

• Object Type

  Architectural elements