Fragment of base, wall, and mouthrim of a low bowl

Object Details

• Description

  Shape: Approximately 40 percent of the mouthrim, wall, and foot of a 3.5 cm-high bowl. Wheel thrown. The bowl wall varies in thickness from 0.3 - 0.6 cm. The foot is slightly convex on the base inside the carved footring. The footring is carved in such a manner that only the inner edge rests on the ground.

  Clay: Relatively fine gray clay with many small and a few large air pockets; few inclusions.

  Glaze: Moderately crackled clear glaze with a slight olive hue. The glaze displays many pinholes left by gasses escaping during firing. Both the foot and the mirror of the original bowl were left unglazed in order to facilitate stacking during firing. A light gray slip was painted on the bottom of the footring, apparently to help control glaze flow and prevent the stacked bowls from sticking to one another.

  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 3 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

  Fujian province, China

• 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

  1300s

• Name

  Pope, John Alexander

• Place

  China, Fujian province

• Topic

  Art, Guangdong ware, Stoneware, Chinese Art, Yuan dynasty (1279 - 1368), Ceramics, Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644)

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)