False seal of Hon'ami Koetsu 本阿弥光悦 (1558-1637) Search this
Medium:
Raku-type earthenware with pigments under lead glaze
Dimensions:
H x W: 9.7 x 23.2 cm (3 13/16 x 9 1/8 in)
Style:
Raku ware, unknown workshop
Type:
Container
Origin:
Tokyo, Japan
Date:
19th century
Period:
Edo period or Meiji era
Description:
Clay: soft, dense, white. Raku type.
Glaze: light salmon-pink and cream; crackled.
Decoration: in green, brown, and cream, under glaze: mountain landscape with waning moon (outside of lid), ferns (warabi) and stream (inside lid, base).
Seal on the bottom of base.
Marks:
Seal: "Koetsu" written with iron pigment on bottom of base, in seal script inside square frame.
Provenance:
Possibly Hachisuka Collection [1]
Ikeda Seisuke (1839-1900), Kyoto, reportedly purchased in Tokushima, province of Awa, circa 1885 [2]
To 1900
Bunkio Matsuki (1867-1940), Boston, to 1900 [3]
From 1900 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Bunkio Matsuki in 1900 [4]
From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [5]
Notes:
[1] See Curatorial Remark 7, L.A. Cort, 1986, in the object record, for information regarding the possibility that this object was formerly in the Lord Hachisuka Collection.
[2] According to Curatorial Remark 5, an Envelope File note, in the object record: "Bunkio Matsuki, 1900: "Old Mr. Ikeda purchased about 15 years ago in Tokushima, Province of Awa."
[3] See Original Pottery List, L. 790, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
[4] See note 3.
[5] 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.
