Tea caddy

Tea caddy (chaire), cylindrical; hand modeled. Walrus tusk cover.
Clay: soft, gray. Raku ware.
Glaze: brilliant, iridescent, yellowish-olive over yellow; splash of gray-blue.
Decoration: incised lines.
Mark. Seinei [Jpn] (seal script, within circular enclosure)

Maker(s)
Artist: Raku Tannyū (1795-1854)
Historical period(s)
Edo period, 1834-1846
Medium
Earthenware with lead-silicate glazes
Style
Seineiken ware
Dimensions
H x Diam: 7.1 × 5.6 cm (2 13/16 × 2 3/16 in)
Geography
Japan, Wakayama prefecture
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1901.92a-b
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Tea caddy (chaire)

Keywords
Edo period (1615 - 1868), iridescence, Japan, Seineiken ware, tea
Provenance

To 1901
Japanese Trading Company, New York to 1901 [1]

From 1901 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Japanese Trading Company in 1901 [2]

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

Notes:

[1] See Original Pottery List, L. 976, 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)

Japanese Trading Company (C.L. Freer source)
Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919

Description

Tea caddy (chaire), cylindrical; hand modeled. Walrus tusk cover.
Clay: soft, gray. Raku ware.
Glaze: brilliant, iridescent, yellowish-olive over yellow; splash of gray-blue.
Decoration: incised lines.
Mark. Seinei [Jpn] (seal script, within circular enclosure)

Marking(s)

Mark. Seinei [Jpn] (seal script, within circular enclosure)

Label

The eleventh head of the Kii house sponsored a garden kiln adjoining the Seineiken pavilion in his private villa, completed in 1834.  The kiln was operated by Raku Tannyu, tenth head of the Raku workshop in Kyoto, but many pieces were made by the lord, his consort and relatives. This tea caddy in the style of sixteenth-century Iga ware is surely an amateur piece.  Inventories show that the kiln was fired a total of only five times between 1834 and 1846, the year of the lord's death.

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