Bowl

Provenance

To 1914
Yamanaka & Company, New York to 1914 [1]

From 1914 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Yamanaka & Company, New York in 1914 [2]

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

Notes:

[1] See Original Pottery List, L. 2415, Freer Galley 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): Yamanaka and Co. (C.L. Freer source)
Charles Lang Freer 1854 - 1919

Label: The earliest description of Chinese pottery in Arabic records refers to a gift, presented to the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (reigned 786-809), consisting of "twenty pieces of imperial China-ware, including bowls, cups and half-cups, the like of which had never been seen at a Caliph's court before." Sent from a governor in northeastern Iran, the gift included some exceptional items that were probably acquired via the Central Asian land route. A decade or so later, larger shipments of Chinese ceramics, similar to the objects seen here, arrived by sea and became known beyond court circles. Increased demand for these imports, especially the small bowls, inspired Iraqi potters to create imitations for a wider market.

Published References

Oriental Ceramics (Toyo Toji Taikan): The World's Great Collections. 12 vols., Tokyo. pl. 23.
Sheila Blair, Jonathan M. Bloom, Kjeld von Folsach, Nancy Netzer, Claude Cernuschi. Cosmophilia: Islamic art from the David Collection, Copenhagen. Exh. cat. Chesnut Hill, MA, 2006-2007. p. 9, fig. 2.
Oya Pancaroglu. Perpetual Glory: Medieval Islamic Ceramics from the Harvey B. Plotnick Collection. Exh. cat. Chicago and New Haven, March 31 - October 28, 2007. p. 16, fig. 2.
Masterpieces of Chinese and Japanese Art: Freer Gallery of Art handbook. Washington, 1976. p. 65.