Jian ware tea bowl with silver band on rim

Tea-bowl with rim banded in silver.
Clay: hard, dark grayish-brown stoneware.
Glaze: thick, purplish-black finely streaked with silver color; iridescent; stops unevenly well short of foot in characteristic roll and drops.

Historical period(s)
Northern Song or Southern Song dynasty, 12th-13th century
Medium
Stoneware with iron glaze; silver rim
Style
Jian ware
Dimensions
H x Diam: 7.3 × 12.7 cm (2 7/8 × 5 in)
Geography
China, Fujian province, Jian kilns
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1897.49
On View Location
Freer Gallery 15: Setting the Bar: Arts of the Song Dynasty
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Tea bowl (tenmoku)

Keywords
brown and black glaze, China, iridescence, Jian ware, Northern Song dynasty (960 - 1127), Southern Song dynasty (1127 - 1279), stoneware, tea
Provenance

To 1897
Yamanaka & Company, to 1897 [1]

From 1897 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Yamanaka & Company in 1897 [2]

From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

Notes:

[1] See Original Pottery List, L. 460, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

[2] See note 1.

[3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919
Yamanaka and Co. (C.L. Freer source) 1917 - 1965

Description

Tea-bowl with rim banded in silver.
Clay: hard, dark grayish-brown stoneware.
Glaze: thick, purplish-black finely streaked with silver color; iridescent; stops unevenly well short of foot in characteristic roll and drops.

Label

The tea-bowl shape called temmoku in Japanese originated at the Jian kilns in China's Fujian Province. In the imperial court of the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127), black- or brown-glazed Jian ware bowls were considered the best color and shape for enhancing the chartreuse color of the tea. In Japan, temmoku tea bowls were used in formal teas to serve honored guests. Crystallization of the iron in the glaze on this bowl has created an iridescent surface and the silvery pattern known as "hare's fur."

Published References
  • Sigisbert Chrétien Bosch Reitz. Catalogue of an Exhibition of Early Chinese Pottery and Sculpture. Exh. cat. New York. fig. 238.
  • Around Chigusa: Tea and The Arts of Sixteenth-Century Japan. Princeton, New Jersey. p. 49, fig. 6.
  • Louise Allison Cort. Early Modern Merchants as Collectors. Abingdon, Oxon England, 12/19/2016. p. 50, fig. 3.1.
Collection Area(s)
Chinese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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