Gourd-shaped sake bottle

Sake Bottle, gourd shaped with bulbous neck.
Clay: hard, resonant, gray
Glaze: brilliant tortoise-shell, in rich red-brown, splashed with yellow; gray and greenish-black on upper part.
Decoration: impure cobalt, under glaze on rim of neck.

Historical period(s)
Edo period, 1780-1820
Medium
Porcelain with cobalt pigment under clear glaze, and iron glaze
Style
Nagayo or Hasami ware
Dimensions
H x Diam: 20.2 × 10.9 cm (7 15/16 × 4 5/16 in)
Geography
Japan, Nagasaki prefecture, Nagayo
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1902.59
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Sake bottle (tokkuri)

Keywords
Edo period (1615 - 1868), gourd, Hasami ware, Japan, Nagayo ware, sake
Provenance

To 1902
Samuel Colman (1832-1920), New York, NY, and Newport, RI, to 1902 [1]

From 1902 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased at the sale of the Samuel Colman Collection, American Art Association, New York, March 19-22, 1902 [2]

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

Notes:

[1] See Original Pottery List, L. 1124, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Samuel Colman was collecting Asian objects by at least 1880 (see Curatorial Remark 18, Louise Cort, April 20, 2007, in the object record).

[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)

Samuel Colman 1832-1920
Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919
American Art Association (C.L. Freer source) established 1883

Description

Sake Bottle, gourd shaped with bulbous neck.
Clay: hard, resonant, gray
Glaze: brilliant tortoise-shell, in rich red-brown, splashed with yellow; gray and greenish-black on upper part.
Decoration: impure cobalt, under glaze on rim of neck.

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