Skip to main content Smithsonian Institution

Catalog Data

Medium:
Stoneware with celadon glaze
Dimensions:
H x Diam: 55.6 × 15.6 cm (21 7/8 × 6 1/8 in)
Style:
Nancheng ware
Type:
Vessel
Origin:
Fuzhou city, Jiangxi province, China
Date:
13th century
Period:
Southern Song or Yuan dynasty
Description:
Funeral vase: tall, slender, with a long neck and expanding mouth; base recessed.
Clay: stoneware; hard, gray, heavy-weight, ringing.
Glaze: lustrous gray-green celadon; brown crackle.
Decoration: five human figures and dragon in applied relief, under glaze.
Label:
This long-necked jar bears a relief figure of a dragon. For use in Chinese burial ritual, it would have been paired with a jar of the same shape bearing a tiger figure. Both jars would hold offerings of grain meant to assist the deceased in the afterlife.
Provenance:
To 1906
Yamanaka & Company, to 1906 [1]
From 1906 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Yamanaka & Company in 1906 [2]
From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]
Notes:
[1] See Original Pottery List, L. 1467, 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:
The Peacock Room Comes to America [2022] (September 3, 2022 - ongoing)
The Peacock Room Comes to America [2017-2019] (October 14, 2017 to January 2, 2019)
The Peacock Room Comes to America [2011-2016] (April 9, 2011 to January 4, 2016)
America Meets Asia at the Freer Gallery of Art (May 9, 1993 to June 2, 1998)
Previous custodian or owner:
Yamanaka and Co. 山中商会 (1917-1965) (C.L. Freer source)
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
Topic:
ceramic  Search this
Longquan ware  Search this
Southern Song dynasty (1127 - 1279)  Search this
funerary  Search this
green glaze  Search this
China  Search this
stoneware  Search this
Chinese Art  Search this
Charles Lang Freer collection  Search this
Credit Line:
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Accession Number:
F1906.249
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
On View:
Freer Gallery 12: The Peacock Room Comes to America
Related Online Resources:
Google Cultural Institute
The Story of the Beautiful
See more items in:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
Data Source:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ye3ca9d2ac1-db33-4062-8449-99401487bd3d
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:fsg_F1906.249