Purchased at the sale of the Samuel Colman Collection as an example of Japanese Tamba ware, this gourd-shaped vase nevertheless prompted Freer to wonder about its origins: "The question arises," he noted, "is not his piece of early Chinese manufacture?" Because the history of Asian ceramics was imperfectly understood in by American scholars and collectors in the early years of the twentieth century, pieces were often misattributed. In this case, Freer was correct to suspect that this was a Chinese piece: It was not, however, as old as he thought: the vase is now dated to the eighteenth or nineteenth century and regarded as an example of Yixing ware from Jinagsu province. In the Peacock Room in Detroit, the vase was displayed with a number of other tall, monochromatic vases and jars with dark, complex glazes and mottled surfaces.

Vase

Yixing ware

18th-19th century

Qing dynasty

Stoneware with blue glaze

HxWxD: 23.6 x 19.2 x 19.2 cm

Yixing

China

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

2

11

North

Gourd-shaped vase

F1902.73

American Art Association

New York

New York

United States

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Freer bought this vase at an American Art Association auction in 1905, where it was offered as part of the sale of the Thomas A. Waggaman collection. (Waggaman, a resident of Washington, D.C. and one of the founders of that city's Catholic University, had opened a private gallery in his Georgetown home in 1888, proposing to charge admission and dedicate the income to the Catholic church). This drum-shaped vase, which dates to the early Edo period, is based on Chinese ceramic prototypes, reflecting the interest in classical Chinese tea wares in seventeenth-century Japan. Freer was especially proud of this piece, and he loaned it to a 1914 exhibition at the Japan Society in New York, where it attracted the attention of Edward Sylvester Morse, whose own collection of Japanese ceramics was destined for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Morse singled out this vase among other Japanese ceramics shown at the 1914 exhibition as being "unique" for its "soft, enticing gold and silver iridescence," which he thought—erroneously—was the result of actual application of silver oxide. He mused: "The curious surface has in places the appearance of the mottled patina and lucent incrustations attaching to bronzes inhumed not too long and subsequently freely handled and caressed." The lambent surface was especially attractive to Freer, whose collection of American paintings exhibited similarly complex surface beauties.

Vase

Bizen ware, Imbe type

17th century

Edo period

Stoneware with slip

HxW: 19.6 x 13.2 cm

Imbe

Japan

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

2

10

North

Vase with drum-shaped body and elephant head handles

F1905.32

American Art Association

New York

New York

United States

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This shallow, amber-glazed tea bowl is dated to the third quarter of the sixteenth century Muromachi or Momoyama period, and is associated with the historic ogama production phases of the Mino kilns of Japan. At the time of production, iron was added to the ash glaze to enrich its coloration; over time, dregs of tea stained the bowl, giving it an even warmer finish. Freer purchased this bowl in 1898, on New York's Fifth Avenue, from Yamanaka and Company, noting that it was "extremely rare-very early." The shape of this tea bowl is termed hirawan and the vessel would traditionally be placed on a lacquer stand. In the Peacock Room in Detroit, however, it appeared on a shelf to the left of La Princesse du Pays de la porcelaine.

Tea bowl

Mino ware

third quarter 16th century

Muromachi or Momoyama period

Stoneware with iron slip under ash glaze; gold lacquer repairs

HxWxD: 5.7 x 15.9 x 15.9 cm

Japan

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

2

9

North

Tea bowl

F1898.465

Yamanaka and Co.

New York

New York

United States

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Tea ceremony water jar (hosomizusashi)

Raku ware, unknown workshop

late 19th century

Meiji era

Clay; black and transparent lead glazes; lacquered wooden lid

HxWxD: 23.3 x 13.3 x 13.3 cm

Kyoto

Japan

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

2

8

North

Imitation of Ogata Kenzan

Tea ceremony narrow water jar, with black lacquer lid

F1901.61a-b

Siegfried Bing

Paris

France

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This cylindrical Raku-type vase was procured for Freer by the dealer Matsuki Bunkyo, who enclosed with it a rather lengthy letter in February of 1903. In the letter he refers to several of the vessel's unique characteristics, including the "deep mysterious quality" of the black finish, as well as the height of the vase, which is "unusually tall." Matsuki thought it was "extraordinary," but upon receiving this purchase, Freer noted it as "coarsely modeled." It was falsely signed by the Japanese master Hon'ami Koetsu (1558-1637), and it is now more accurately attributed to the School of Koetsu. Even so, this vessel is considered to be a hanaike, a type of cultural production designated by the Japanese as a National Treasure because of its historical or artistic significance.

Vase (hanaike)

19th century

Edo period or Meiji era

Raku-type earthenware with Black Raku glaze

HxW: 25.7 x 10.7 cm

Kyoto

Japan

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

2

7

North

False signature of Hon'ami Koetsu

Vase with incised design of crane and maple leaves

F1903.45

Matsuki Bunkyo

Boston

Massachusetts

United States

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This tall slender tomb jar from the Southern Song dynasty is one of eight such elaborately decorated vessels that Freer displayed as pairs in the Peacock Room in Detroit. He purchased this example from the New York gallery of Yamanaka and Company, and he was told that it and other "specimens of this kind" had been "recovered from ancient Buddhist tombs" in Korea. While that was probably true, this particular jar is now known to be Chinese in origin and to date to the thirteenth century. Originally an accoutrement of burial in China as well as Korea, it would have been paired with another jar of the same shape, both of which would have held funeral offerings of grain meant to assist the deceased in the afterlife.

Tomb jar

Longquan ware

13th century

Southern Song dynasty

Stoneware with celadon glaze

HxW: 55.6 x 15.6 cm

Longquan

China

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

2

6

North

Tomb jar

F1906.249

Yamanaka and Co.

New York

New York

United States

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The Peacock Room, originally the dining room in the home of Frederick R. Leyland, was intended to showcase its owner's extensive collection of Chinese blue-and -white porcelain. Among his 300-plus pieces were examples similar to this vessel. Known as Kangxi ware, these pots were produced in the Jingdezhen region during the Kangxi reign (1662-1722). They became so popular with Victorian consumers that the press mockingly dubbed the craze "Chinamania."

When Charles Lang Freer purchased the Peacock Room in London in 1904, it had already been emptied of its blue-and-white porcelains. Freer, in any case, did not care for their slick surfaces and bright glazes. Beginning in the 1980s, the Freer Gallery of Art began to acquire blue-and-whites for display in the Peacock Room, in an effort to evoke the chromatic relationships and pictorial patterns that inspired Whistler and his contemporaries.

Dish

1662-1722

Qing dynasty

Porcelain with cobalt pigment under clear glaze

HxW: 4.9 x 35.0 cm

Jingdezhen

China

Gift of Jeffrey and Carol Horvitz

1

5

North

Dish

F2002.10.2

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Freer acquired this "very fine" flat- sided flask from Y. Fujita and Company in 1903. An example of Japanese Takatori ware (pottery made in the Fukuoka Prefecture), it dates to the Edo period. This flask was likely used for tea ceremonies, in keeping with the tea bowls and caddies that are also associated with Takatori ware. This vessel's precise light grey finish was likely achieved by glazing the clay with iron in the kiln. In the Peacock Room, Freer grouped it with a rather varied array of East Asian ceramics, including a number of similarly dark glazed specimens.

Bottle

Takatori ware

mid 19th century

Edo period

Stoneware with iron glaze

HxW: 20.6 x 14.6 cm

Nishi Sarayama kiln

Japan

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

2

5

North

Flat-sided sake flask

F1903.55

Y. Fujita and Company

Kyoto

Japan

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The Peacock Room, originally the dining room in the home of Frederick R. Leyland, was intended to showcase its owner's extensive collection of Chinese blue-and -white porcelain. Among his 300-plus pieces were examples similar to this vessel. Known as Kangxi ware, these pots were produced in the Jingdezhen region during the Kangxi reign (1662-1722). They became so popular with Victorian consumers that the press mockingly dubbed the craze "Chinamania."

When Charles Lang Freer purchased the Peacock Room in London in 1904, it had already been emptied of its blue-and-white porcelains. Freer, in any case, did not care for their slick surfaces and bright glazes. Beginning in the 1980s, the Freer Gallery of Art began to acquire blue-and-whites for display in the Peacock Room, in an effort to evoke the chromatic relationships and pictorial patterns that inspired Whistler and his contemporaries.

Jar

Jingdezhen ware

mid 17th-early 18th century

Qing dynasty

Porcelain with cobalt pigment under clear glaze

HxWxD: 51.0 x 20.8 x 20.8 cm

Jingdezhen

China

Purchase--Friends of Asian Arts and Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program

1

4

North

Jar with cover, one of a pair with F1992.11a-b

F1992.10a-b

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Freer described this tall flower-vase, which he purchased in 1906 from the sale of a contemporary English ceramics collector, as "very fine." He believed it had been produced during the Ming dynasty; subsequent scholars, however, have dated it to the Qing dynasty. It is a striking brilliant red-brown and black, finely speckled with a metallic dust, making its surface slightly iridescent. In the Peacock Room in Detroit, it was placed on a high shelf to the left of La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine, close to a number of similarly dark, monochromatic vessels from China and Japan.

Vase

17th-19th century

Qing dynasty

Stoneware with iron glaze

HxW: 33.8 x 23.2 cm

China

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

2

4

North

Vase

F1906.12

J. Spier

London

England

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Some of the distinctive characteristics of this seventeenth century Iranian bowl include its red luster paint with metallic reflections, a "piercing" on one foot, and a slightly cracked rim. The imperfection, a sign of the vessel's antiquity, may have been part of its appeal to Freer, who considered it "rare and important." He purchased this stone-paste bowl from Dikran Kelekian as part of a group acquisition in 1903. In 1908, he displayed it in the Peacock Room with a grouping of similar bowls, on a corner shelf adjacent to the main doorway.

Bowl

17th century

Safavid period

Stone-paste painted in lustre over glaze

HxW: 9.5 x 18.5 cm

Iran

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

2

3

North

Bowl

F1903.225

Dikran G. Kelekian

Paris

France

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Freer purchased this late seventeenth-century Iranian bowl from the Paris-based dealer Dikran Kelekian in 1903, likely as part of a group acquisition of similar ceramic objects. Freer called this piece a "beautiful specimen," and thought it related closely in design to some of his other purchases from that dealer. Perhaps because of this, when Freer displayed the vessel in the Peacock Room in Detroit, he placed it in close proximity to those similar items, on a corner shelf adjacent to the main doorway.

Bowl

2nd half of the 17th century

Safavid period

Stone-paste painted with lustre

HxW: 9.3 x 18.4 cm

Iran

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

2

2

North

Bowl

F1903.7

Dikran G. Kelekian

Paris

France

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Shortly after the turn of the twentieth century, Freer began to purchase Near Eastern pottery to complement his already substantial holdings of East Asian ceramics. In 1908 he would travel to Egypt, Palestine, and Syria to seek examples directly from local dealers. Excavations had brought sizable quantities of these wares to the European art market. The Paris-based dealer Dikran Kelekian was an early purveyor of examples of pieces like this bowl, which Freer acquired from him in 1903. In his inventory notes, Freer described it as an "interesting specimen for students" of Persian pottery. In the Peacock Room in Detroit, he displayed it on a corner shelf adjacent to the main doorway, grouped with two similar examples that he had purchased in the same year.

Bowl

17th-18th century

Stone-paste painted over glaze

HxW: 8.1 x 14.1 cm

Probably Iran

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

2

1

North

Bowl

F1903.195

Dikran G. Kelekian

Paris

France

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These cast- and wrought-iron andirons, designed by Thomas Jeckyll, take the form of the sunflower, one of the floral emblems of the Aesthetic Movement. The design was likely created specifically for Frederick Leyland's dining room at 49 Prince's Gate in London, though the andirons eventually became commercially available through the Norwich firm of Barnard, Bishop & Barnards. The company's 1878 catalogue offered them in wrought-iron or polished wrought-brass. This pair, which were acquired by the Freer in 1980, are not original to the room, but are virtually identical. The Leylands' andirons, like these, were gilded. Legend has it that those at Prince's Gate may have originally been brass, and that Whistler later gilded them as part of his total redecoration of the room between 1876 and 1877.

Andiron

ca. 1878-84

Iron

HxWxD: 85.1 x 28.0 x 52.8 cm

Norwich

England

Purchase

1

North

Thomas Jeckyll (1827-1881)

Sunflower andirons

FSC-M-66a-b

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Before he had begun to design interiors like the dining room at 49 Prince's Gate, Thomas Jeckyll had designed decorative metal objects, primarily fireplace implements, for the Norwich firm Barnard, Bishop & Barnards. The sunflower andirons that he designed for the Peacock Room were intended to flank this cast-iron fire basket, whose Japanese-inspired designs repeat the patterns carved into the spindle shelving Jeckyll created to showcase the blue-and-white porcelain collection of his patron, Frederick R. Leyland.

Fire basket

ca. 1876

Cast-iron and brass

HxWxD: 48.3 x 52.4 x 33.3 cm

Norwich

England

Purchase

1

North

Thomas Jeckyll (1827-1881)

Fire-basket

FSC-M-74

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Word document PR-overview-LG

Room installation

1876-1877

Oil paint and gold leaf on canvas, leather, and wood

HxWxD: 421.6 x 613.4 x 1026.2 cm

United States

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

1

James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)

Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room

F1904.61

Obach & Co.

London

England

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This decorative frame and register door for a slow combustion stove is made of cast iron. Its ornamental motif of roundels enclosing Japanese-inspired flowers and insects on a patterned ground echoes the patterns on room's shelving spindles and on the frame surrounding The Princess from the Land of Porcelain, which hangs directly above the fireplace. The designer of the surround, Norwich architect Thomas Jeckyll, had begun producing metalwork designs for a local foundry, Banard, Bishop, & Barnards, around 1859. His first design for a fireplace surround like this one was registered in 1873, and a version identical in form to this one appeared in the 1878 catalogue of Barnard, Bishop, & Barnards, where it was listed as no. 682, available in "Berlin blacked," "electro-bronzed," or polished brass. These were immensely popular in the 1880s, frequently used by leading Aesthetic Movement architects such as Norman Shaw and praised by tastemakers for combining beauty with utility. When Charles Lang Freer purchased the Peacock Room in 1904, most of its original furnishings had been removed. This piece, identical to the one that was in the Peacock Room in London, was acquired by the museum in 1976.

Door

ca. 1878

Cast iron

HxW: 91.3 x 60.0 cm

United Kingdom

Gift of Harold P. Stern

Thomas Jeckyll (1827-1881)

Frame and register door for slow combustion stove.

FSC-M-16

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This painting, which hangs over the mantel in the Peacock Room, was part of a series of costume pictures undertaken by Whistler in mid-1860s in which western models appear in Asian dress, surrounded by Chinese and Japanese objects from Whistler's own collections. Here, the noted Victorian beauty Christina Spartali strikes a pose that recalls both the elongated figures depicted on Chinese blue and white porcelain and the graceful courtesans that appear in ukiyo-e prints.

<p>

Whistler never visited Asia, and his creative borrowing of eastern objects and influences was motivated by a desire to suggest the temporal and spatial distance of a foreign and therefore imaginary realm, rather than by an interest in Asian cultures per se.

<p>

<i>The Princesse</i> was purchased around 1867 by the shipping magnate Frederick Leyland, who hung it in his London dining room, where he also displayed his extensive collection of Kangxi porcelain. Whistler suggested some changes to the color scheme of the room which would, he told Leyland, better harmonize with the palette of the <i>Princesse</i>. The final result, of course, was <i>Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room.</i> After Leyland's death in 1892, the <i>Princesse</i> was purchased by the Glasgow collector William Burrell, who subsequently sold it to Charles Lang Freer in 1903, the year of Whistler's death.

<p>

That following year, Freer acquired the entire Peacock Room, and the <i>Princess</i> once again took her place in a realm of Asian ceramics&#151;not porcelain, which Freer didn't care for, but earth-toned, often iridescent, glazed pottery and stoneware from Japan, China, Korea, Syria, and Iran. In 1923, the room and the <i>Princesse</i> were moved yet again, to the Freer Gallery of Art where the painting has presided over a changing array of Asian ceramics ever since. It, like the room in which it hangs, is an apt illustration of the Freer aesthetic, an imaginative, cosmopolitan representation of East-West harmony.

Oil painting

1863-1865

Oil on canvas

HxW: 201.5 x 116.1 cm

United States

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)

La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine (The Princess from the Land of Porcelain)

F1903.91a-b

Sir William Burrell

Glasgow

Scotland

Oil on canvas

HxW: 201.5 x 116.1 cm

1

Oil Painting

Sir William Burrell

Glasgow

Scotland

Charles Lang Freer to Rosalind Birnie Philip. Dec. 9, 1903

Christina Spartali, photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron

Charles Lang Freer to William Burrell

William Burrell to Charles Lang Freer, Sept. 4, 1903

"It certainly is a great picture, and I am glad to have it under my care; and I must tell you, confidentially, that eventually it will go to the American National Museum."

"I note what you say regarding the picture's ultimate destination and am glad to know it will eventually become National property."