Tea bowl

Bowl, broad inverted bell-shape; rough foot.
Clay: hard, dense, grayish.
Glaze: glassy gray-brown; lustreless cream pool where glaze and slip have accumulated in bottom. Interior of footrim glazed.
Decoration: inlaid in cream-white.

Historical period(s)
Edo period, 18th-early 19th century
Medium
Stoneware with white slip under clear glaze
Style
Possibly Rakuzan ware
Dimensions
H x Diam: 8.7 × 15.2 cm (3 7/16 × 6 in)
Geography
Japan, Shimane prefecture, Matsue, Rakuzan kiln
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1904.317
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Tea bowl

Keywords
Edo period (1615 - 1868), Japan, Rakuzan ware, stoneware, tea
Provenance

To 1903
Hirase Roko (1829-1908), Osaka, Japan, to 1903 [1]

From 1903 to 1904
Yamanaka & Company, acquired from Hirase Roko in 1903 [2]

From 1904 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Yamanaka & Company, New York, NY, in 1904 [3]

From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [4]

Notes:

[1] See Curatorial Remark 1 in the object record, as well as Curatorial Remark 12, Louise Cort, 1987, Curatorial Remark 22, Louise Cort, September 18, 2009, and Curatorial Remark 23, Louise Cort, March 31, 2011, in the object record.

[2] The Hirase collection was sold at auctions in 1903 and 1906. The 1903 sale, held on April 8, was managed in part by Yamanaka Kichirobei, and this fact presumably accounts for the fact that Freer acquired three former Hirase pieces from Yamanaka & Company (see F1904.317, F1904.319a-b, and F1904.326). These ceramic pieces had been offered in the New York sale, but were sold to Charles Lang Freer at a later date by Yamanaka (according to Curatorial Remark 12, Louise A. Cort, 1987, and Curatorial Remark 23, Louise Cort, March 31, 2011, in the object record).

[3] See note 2. See also, Original Pottery List, L. 1317, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

[4] 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)

Hirase Roko 1829-1908
Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919
Yamanaka and Co. (C.L. Freer source) 1917-1965

Description

Bowl, broad inverted bell-shape; rough foot.
Clay: hard, dense, grayish.
Glaze: glassy gray-brown; lustreless cream pool where glaze and slip have accumulated in bottom. Interior of footrim glazed.
Decoration: inlaid in cream-white.

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