Satsuma ware tea bowl, Ryumonji kilns

Tea bowl. Spiral cut in base.
Clay: dense, sonorous, grayish. Reddish-brown on surface.
Glaze: mottled gray over dark olive, brown, and black, in snake-skin effect.
Two decorative “crest” designs in white glaze on walls. Footrim and base unglazed.

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Historical period(s)
Edo period, mid 18th-mid 19th century
Medium
Stoneware with iron and rice-straw-ash glazes
Style
Satsuma ware, Ryumonji kilns
Dimensions
H x Diam: 9.3 Ɨ 13.1 cm (3 11/16 Ɨ 5 3/16 in)
Geography
Japan, Kagoshima prefecture, Ryumonji kilns
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Accession Number
F1899.85
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Tea bowl (chawan)

Keywords
brown and black glaze, Edo period (1615 - 1868), Japan, rice-straw-ash glaze, Ryumonji ware, Satsuma ware, stoneware, tea
Provenance

To 1899
Bunkio Matsuki (1867-1940), Boston, to 1899 [1]

From 1899 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Bunkio Matsuki in 1899 [2]

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

Notes:

[1] Undated folder sheet note. See Original Pottery List, L. 447, 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
Bunkio Matsuki (C.L. Freer source) 1867-1940

Description

Tea bowl. Spiral cut in base.
Clay: dense, sonorous, grayish. Reddish-brown on surface.
Glaze: mottled gray over dark olive, brown, and black, in snake-skin effect.
Two decorative "crest" designs in white glaze on walls. Footrim and base unglazed.

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