Tea caddy

Tea caddy (chaire [JPN])
Tall, slender. Ivory cover. String-cut base.
Clay: dense, fine-grained, fired reddish-brown.
Glaze: iron glaze over opaque white glaze. Interior unglazed.

Weight measured by Matsumura Makiko: 239.87 grams.

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Historical period(s)
Momoyama period, 1602-1613
Medium
Stoneware clay with iron slip, rice-straw-ash, and iron glazes; ivory lid
Style
Satsuma ware, Old Chosa type
Dimensions
H x Diam: 12 Ɨ 6.1 cm (4 3/4 Ɨ 2 3/8 in)
Geography
Japan, Kagoshima prefecture, Aira county, Tateno kiln group, Uto or Osato kiln
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1901.39a-b
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Tea caddy (chaire)

Keywords
Japan, Momoyama period (1573 - 1615), Satsuma ware, Old Chosa type, stoneware, tea
Provenance

To 1901
R. Wagner, Berlin, to 1901 [1]

From 1901 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from R. Wagner in 1901 [2]

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

Notes:

[1] See Original Pottery List, L. 889, 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)

R. Wagner (C.L. Freer source)
Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919

Description

Tea caddy (chaire [JPN])
Tall, slender. Ivory cover. String-cut base.
Clay: dense, fine-grained, fired reddish-brown.
Glaze: iron glaze over opaque white glaze. Interior unglazed.

Weight measured by Matsumura Makiko: 239.87 grams.

Label

This container for powdered tea, used in the tea ceremony, bears a mottled glaze created by applying an iron glaze over a rice-straw ash glaze. This speckled glaze is characteristic of tea caddies made at kilns in Satsuma province (modern Kagoshima prefecture) by Korean potters who were resettled there at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The elongated vessel shape is also seen in Oribe ware tea caddies made at the Mino kilns in the first several decades of the seventeenth century. Styles in tea-ceremony utensils produced at regional kilns were synchronized by merchants from Kyoto and other urban centers where the tea ceremony was popular.

Published References
  • Oriental Ceramics: The World's Great Collections. 12 vols., Tokyo. vol. 10, pl. 55.
  • Matsumura Makiko. Furea gyarari no Satsumayaki [Satsuma Ware in the Freer Gallery]. no. 19, April 9, 2005. pp. 3-8.
Collection Area(s)
Japanese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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