Fragment of the base of a covered ceramic box

Object Details

• Description

  Shape: Shard consists of a fragment of the base of a covered ceramic box. The box wall is 0.5 cm thick while the base itself is 0.6 cm. The base is flat with no footring.

  Clay: White, very fine-grained, porcelain. There are many fine gray and black inclusions and small air pockets.

  Glaze: The box is glazed with a bubbly, pale seawater-green glaze. The translucent glaze is quite heavily crackled and is darker green where it has pooled. The interior of the box is glazed, as is the outer edge of the bottom. The inner portion of the bottom is unglazed. There is evidence that clay balls were used to separate this pot from its lower neighbor during firing.

  Decoration: None.

  Marks: "ATP" presumably standing for "Angkor Thom Pool" is written in pencil on one broken edge of the shard.

• 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

  Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, China

• Credit Line

  Gift of John A. Pope

• Type

  Container

• 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.

  The information presented on this website may be revised and updated at any time as ongoing research progresses or as otherwise warranted. Pending any such revisions and updates, information on this site may be incomplete or inaccurate or may contain typographical errors. Neither the Smithsonian nor its regents, officers, employees, or agents make any representations about the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or timeliness of the information on the site. Use this site and the information provided on it subject to your own judgment. The National Museum of Asian Art welcomes information that would augment or clarify the ownership history of objects in their collections.

Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1100s, 1200s

• Name

  Pope, John Alexander

• Place

  China, Jiangxi province, Jingdezhen

• Topic

  Porcelain, Art, Qingbai ware, Stoneware, Chinese Art, Southern Song dynasty (1127 - 1279), Ceramics

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Containers