Fragment of base of a white stoneware bowl

Object Details

• Description

  Shape: Shard consists of approximately half of the base of a white-bodied bowl. The footring is very low, extending only about 0.4 cm below the base of the bowl on the inside of the footring. Exterior height of the footring is 0.9 cm. Outside diameter of the footring is estimated to have been about 10.0 cm. The base of the footring itself is very wide, approximately 1.9 cm, and extremely well-carved.

  Clay: Fine, very white, almost porcelaneous stoneware. There are moderate fine inclusions and virtually no air pockets. The unglazed portions of the footring have oxidized orange-red where they were exposed to the kiln atmosphere.

  Glaze: The finely crackled clear glaze has a slight seawater-green tinge to it. The glaze is marred in the mirror of the bowl where it appears that clay spacer-balls were placed to enable stacking of a pile of bowls for firing. There are corresponding marks on the base of the footring where the present bowl was placed on clay balls to raise it above the bowl below. It appears that a slip was applied to the bottom of the footring before the clay spacer was attached, presumably to ensure that the spacer could be removed cleanly after firing.

  Decoration: None.

  Marks: None.

• Provenance

  To 1957

  John A. Pope (1906-1982), Washington DC, collected between August 1956 and April 1957 in Angkor, Cambodia. [1]

  From 1957

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of John A. Pope, Washington DC [2]

  Notes:

  [1] See Curatorial Remark 2 in the object record. See also “Ceramics in Mainland and Southeast Asia: Collections in the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery”, copy in object file, Collections Management Office.

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

• Collection

  Freer Study Collection

• Previous custodian or owner

  Dr. John Alexander Pope (1906-1982)

• Origin

  Ban Kruat kilns, Buriram province, Northeast Thailand

• Credit Line

  Gift of John A. Pope

• Type

  Vessel

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1100s, 1200s

• Name

  Pope, John Alexander

• Place

  Buriram province, Thailand, Ban Kruat kilns

• Topic

  Art, Stoneware, Southeast Asian Art, Ceramics, Angkor period (802 - 1431)

• Culture

  Southeast Asians

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)