Tea bowl, deep conical bowl with incurving rim, low everted foot.
Clay: soft, gray-white, buff where exposed
Glaze: clear, appearing whitish where thick, faintly crackled, irregularly striped from the rim down both inside and outside with iron-brown glaze
Mark: spiral within round frame, center of base
Provenance:
To 1898
Yamanaka & Company, to 1898 [1]
From 1898 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Yamanaka & Company in 1898 [2]
From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]
Notes:
[1] See Original Pottery List, L. 582, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. The majority of Charles Lang Freer’s purchases from Yamanaka & Company were made at its New York branch. Yamanaka & Company maintained branch offices, at various times, in Boston, Chicago, London, Peking, Shanghai, Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto. During the summer, the company also maintained seasonal locations in Newport, Bar Harbor, and Atlantic City.
[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.
Collection:
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Exhibition History:
Tea for...Everyone: Popular Ceramics for Drinking Tea in Japan (March 8 to October 19, 2008)
Previous custodian or owner:
Yamanaka and Co. 山中商会 (1917-1965) (C.L. Freer source)
