Bowl

American, 20th century, Early Pewabic
Bowl, small, deep
Clay: dense
Glaze: mingled green and gray, with a high golden iridescence.

Historical period(s)
ca. 1912
Medium
Glazed clay
Style
Pewabic ware
Dimensions
H x Diam (overall): 5.4 x 9.8 cm (2 1/8 x 3 7/8 in)
Geography
United States, Michigan, Detroit
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Accession Number
F1912.103
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Bowl

Keywords
glazed, Pewabic ware, United States
Provenance

To 1912
Pewabic Pottery, Detroit, Michigan, 1912 [1]

1912-1920
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Pewabic Pottery, Detroit, MI [2]

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

Notes:

[1] See receipt from Pewabic Pottery to Charles L. Freer, August 7, 1912 (received August 12, 1912), Box 119, Folder 4, Charles Lang Freer Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC copy in object file. On the receipt, there is an annotation next to the object's description, noting "no charge."

[2] See voucher No. 10, August 9, 1912, Box 119, Folder 4, Charles Lang Freer Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC copy in object file.

[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.

Research completed July 28, 2022.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919
Pewabic Pottery (C.L. Freer source)

Description

American, 20th century, Early Pewabic
Bowl, small, deep
Clay: dense
Glaze: mingled green and gray, with a high golden iridescence.

Inscription(s)

- Rectangular sticker affixed to base of vessel, "2355" printed in black ink
- Rectangular sticker affixed to base of vessel, "3588" printed in black ink
- Round sticker affixed to base of vessel, "Pewabic Detroit" printed in black ink, "450 14" written in pencil in center

Label

The Pewabic Pottery was a ceramics workshop in Detroit established at the turn of the century. The primary aesthetic interest of its founder, Mary Chase Perry Stratton, was the art of glazing, or "painting with fire."  Stratton's friend and patron Charles Lang Freer fostered her efforts by providing fragments of ancient Asian pots to emulate. Her mature works are clearly inspired by the surfaces and shapes of ceramics in Freer's collection, particularly the Islamic pottery known as Raqqa ware, with its distinctive iridescence. The surfaces also resonate with paintings in Freer's collection by James McNeill Whistler, Thomas Dewing, and Dwight Tryon.

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