Ewer with lid

Ewer: double-gourd form; twisted handle; flat base; with unglazed ring. Patches of kiln slag “spur marks”. Pottery stopper. Plaster restoration at mouth.
Clay: hard, gray, sonant.
Glaze: brilliant gray-green celadon; crackled. Thin earth deposits.
Decoration: incised in paste under glaze: clouds on upper portion, blossoming lotus sprays on lower portion of body. Clouds or waves around bottom. Incised detail on spout and around handle.

Historical period(s)
Goryeo period, first half of 13th century
Medium
Stoneware with celadon glaze
Dimensions
H x W x D (ewer): 33 × 22.1 × 16 cm (13 × 8 11/16 × 6 5/16 in)
Geography
Korea
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1909.32a-b
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Ewer

Keywords
Goryeo period (918 - 1392), green glaze, Korea, lotus, stoneware, wine
Provenance

To 1909
Yamanaka & Company, New York to 1909 [1]

From 1909 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Yamanaka & Company, New York in 1909 [2]

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

Notes:

[1] Undated folder sheet note. Also see Original Pottery List, L. 1921, 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)

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

Description

Ewer: double-gourd form; twisted handle; flat base; with unglazed ring. Patches of kiln slag "spur marks". Pottery stopper. Plaster restoration at mouth.
Clay: hard, gray, sonant.
Glaze: brilliant gray-green celadon; crackled. Thin earth deposits.
Decoration: incised in paste under glaze: clouds on upper portion, blossoming lotus sprays on lower portion of body. Clouds or waves around bottom. Incised detail on spout and around handle.

Label

Production of celadon-glazed ceramics began in Korea as early as the ninth or tenth century. Scholars believe that Chinese potters from Yue-ware kilns, fleeing disruptions in the Yue region, may have brought the technology to kilns in southwest Korea. This ewer was probably fired at Kangjin, one of the major production centers of Korean celadon during the Koryo dynasty.

Published References
  • Louise Allison Cort. Korean Ceramics in the Freer Gallery of Art. .
  • Robert P. Griffing Jr. The Art of the Korean Potter: Silla, Koryo, Yi. New York and Greenwich, Connecticut, Spring 1968. cat. 45.
  • Sigisbert Chrétien Bosch Reitz. Catalogue of an Exhibition of Early Chinese Pottery and Sculpture. Exh. cat. New York. fig. 282.
  • Oriental Ceramics: The World's Great Collections. 12 vols., Tokyo. vol. 10, pl. 220.
  • Warren E. Cox. The Book of Pottery and Porcelain. 2 vols., New York. vol. 1: p. 219, pl. 67.
  • Evelyn B. McCune. Korean Pottery of the Koryo Period (935-1392). vol. 2, no. 32 Washington, April 12, 1945. p. 2.
  • Ann Yonemura. Korean Art in Western Collections, 5: Korean Art in the Freer Gallery of Art. vol. 4, no. 2 Los Angeles, June 1983. pp. 4-15, pl. 5.
  • M. Kerslake. Korean Pottery. vol. 5, no. 2 London, February 1951. p. 22.
Collection Area(s)
Korean Art
Web Resources
Korean Ceramics in the Freer Gallery of Art
Google Cultural Institute
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