Small jar, used in Japan as tea caddy (chaire) Ivory cover (knob missing). String-cut foot, beveled edge.
Clay: hard, fine-grained, reddish brown.
Glaze: thin reddish-brown glaze, brown where thicker, blackish where thin; diagonal line with several chips and smudges. Interior unglazed.
Label:
This lightweight jar probably once held medicine or another precious substance. It bears a thin iron glaze typical of utilitarian wares made at kilns in southern China.
Provenance:
To 1905
Thomas E. Waggaman (1839-1906), Washington, DC, to 1905 [1]
From 1905 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased at the sale of the Waggaman Collection, American Art Association, New York, NY, January 25-February 3, 1905, no. 1901 [2]
From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]
Notes:
[1] See Original Pottery List, L. 1358, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Also see Curatorial Remark 9, Louise Cort, June 17, 2008, in the object record.
[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:
The Tea Ceremony as Melting Pot (January 31 to July 18, 2004)
Previous custodian or owner:
Thomas E. Waggaman (1839-1906)
American Art Association (established 1883) (C.L. Freer source)
