Ember pot (hiire) in Dutch style

Fire-bowl (hiire), cylindrical, low foot.
Clay: fine-grained buff stoneware.
Glaze: transparent, over white slip, partially flaked off.
Decoration: in blue, red, and yellow enamels, over glaze.

Maker(s)
Artist: Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743) Narutaki workshop (active 1699-1712)
Historical period(s)
Edo period, 1699-1712
Medium
White clay; white slip, iron and cobalt pigments, and enamels under transparent lead glaze; enamel over glaze
Dimensions
H x Diam: 9.3 × 13.3 cm (3 11/16 × 5 1/4 in)
Geography
Japan, Kyoto prefecture, Kyoto
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1902.80
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Ember pot (hiire)

Keywords
Edo period (1615 - 1868), Japan
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. 1148, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Samuel Colman was collecting Asian objects by at least 1880 (see Curatorial Remark 8, 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

Fire-bowl (hiire), cylindrical, low foot.
Clay: fine-grained buff stoneware.
Glaze: transparent, over white slip, partially flaked off.
Decoration: in blue, red, and yellow enamels, over glaze.

Marking(s)

Seal: "Shoko" (veneration of the ancient)

Label

The unglazed interior and size of this vessel suggest its use as an ember pot. The body shape, basically a cylinder with inverted median and flattened rim, is inspired by the late-Ming porcelain ware called undo-de. The decoration is intended to evoke a Western style, ostensibly Delft ware, which was imported into Japan from the early seventeenth century. The feathery motif, called aigrette, appears on a German dish in the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (71.20), and it also appears on Delft tiles. The dots can be found on Delft ware and also on late-Ming porcelains brought into Japan in the early seventeenth century.

Published References
  • Richard L. Wilson. The Potter's Brush: The Kenzan Style in Japanese Ceramics. Exh. cat. Washington. cat. 39, p. 115.
  • Louise Allison Cort. The Kenzan Style in Japanese Ceramics. Watertown, Massachusetts, Autumn 2002. p. 169.
Collection Area(s)
Japanese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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