Cizhou ware jar with wide mouth and two strap handles

Tz’u-chou ware — Northern black ware. A large jar with a wide mouth and two strap-handles; bold foot ring.
Body: porcellanous stoneware; buff colored clay.
Glaze and decoration: the shoulder and strap-handles are covered with a delicate applied ribbing under a lustrous dark brown glaze having a minute gray speckling; lower body with a shiny brown glaze roughened by adhesions.

Historical period(s)
Northern Song or Jin dynasty, 12th century
Medium
Stoneware with white slip ribbing under two layers of iron glaze
Style
Cizhou-type ware
Dimensions
H x W: 28.6 x 27.6 cm (11 1/4 x 10 7/8 in)
Geography
China, Henan, Hebei, or Shandong province
Credit Line
Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1945.10
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Jar

Keywords
China, Cizhou ware, Jin dynasty (1115 - 1234), Northern Black ware, Northern Song dynasty (960 - 1127), stoneware
Provenance

To 1945
Mathias Komor, New York. [1]

From 1945
Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Mathias Komor, New York. [2]

Notes:

[1] Curatorial Remark 1 in the object record.

[2] See note 1.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Mathias Komor 1909-1984

Description

Tz'u-chou ware -- Northern black ware. A large jar with a wide mouth and two strap-handles; bold foot ring.
Body: porcellanous stoneware; buff colored clay.
Glaze and decoration: the shoulder and strap-handles are covered with a delicate applied ribbing under a lustrous dark brown glaze having a minute gray speckling; lower body with a shiny brown glaze roughened by adhesions.

Label

Jars of this type were made at various kilns in northern China that produced the varieties of wares classed as Cizhou ware, named after the kiln site in Cizhou county, Hebei province. The smooth surface of the lustrous black glaze is broken by vertical ribbing made by applying thin trails of slip (liquid clay).

Published References
  • Oriental Ceramics: The World's Great Collections. 12 vols., Tokyo. vol. 10, pl. 23.
  • Masterpieces of Chinese and Japanese Art: Freer Gallery of Art handbook. Washington, 1976. .
  • Dr. John Alexander Pope, Thomas Lawton, Harold P. Stern. The Freer Gallery of Art. 2 vols., Washington and Tokyo, 1971-1972. cat. 124, vol. 1: p. 178.
Collection Area(s)
Chinese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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