Tea-leaf storage jar with four lugs

Historical period(s)
Yuan or Ming dynasty, 14th-mid 15th century
Medium
Stoneware with iron glaze
Dimensions
H x Diam: 37.3 x 35.1 cm (14 11/16 x 13 13/16 in)
Geography
China, probably Guangdong province
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1900.109
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Tea-leaf storage jar (chatsubo)

Keywords
China, iridescence, Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644), stoneware, tea, Yuan dynasty (1279 - 1368)
Provenance

To 1900
Yamanaka & Company, New York, NY, to 1900 [1]

From 1900 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), given by Yamanaka & Company in December 1900 [2]

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

Notes:

[1] See Object file.

[2] Curatorial Remarks, from an exhibition label, September 1983: Freer received this jar as a gift for Christmas, 1900, from the Japanese firm of Yamanaka and Company, one major source of the East Asian ceramics that he had collected over the preceding decade.

[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

Label

Beginning in the ninth century, China sent large numbers of storage jars to destinations along trading routes to Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. The jars were made at kilns in the coastal provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian, or Guangdong, close to major port cities. Presumably most jars served as containers for commercial goods. Even after the Chinese jars were empty, they were highly valued. The uses to which they were put depended on the culture that received them. This jar reached Japan, where Chinese jars stored tea leaves used in the Japanese tea ceremony, chanoyu.

Collection Area(s)
Chinese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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