Bowl

Bowl

Gangjin kilns

Charles Freer purchased this eleventh-century celadon bowl as part of the Horace Allen collection of Korean ceramics. Allen was a Presbyterian medical missionary who traveled to Korea in 1884 and went on to assemble a remarkable collection of ceramics, many taken from the tombs of Korean nobility. Freer purchased his entire set of eighty pieces when it was offered for sale in 1907. The technique of preparing celadon glazes, which derive their color from traces of iron fired in a high-temperature reducing atmosphere, was first developed by Chinese potters and began to be used in Korea during the tenth century. In the Peacock Room in Detroit, this piece was grouped with number similar dishes and beneath an array of iridescent Raqqa wares from Syria.

mid 11th century

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Dr. Horace N. Allen

Stoneware with celadon glaze

HxW: 5.9 x 19.2 cm

F1907.320

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2

218.1

West

Goryeo period

Korea

United States

Toledo

OH

Dish

Dish

Gangjin or Buan kilns

Dating to circa 1200, this bowl, with its stamped floral design and carved ribs, was part of the Horace Allen collection of Korean ceramics, which Freer acquired in 1907. Allen was a Presbyterian medical missionary who traveled to Korea in 1884 and went on to assemble a remarkable collection of ceramics, many taken from the tombs of Korean nobility. Freer purchased his entire set of eighty pieces when it was offered for sale in 1907. This piece is an example of Korean celadon. The technique of preparing celadon glazes, which derive their color from traces of iron fired in a high-temperature reducing atmosphere, was first developed by Chinese potters and began to be used in Korea during the tenth century. In the Peacock Room in Detroit, this piece was grouped with number similar dishes and beneath an array of iridescent Raqqa wares from Syria.

late 12th-early 13th century

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Dr. Horace N. Allen

Stoneware with celadon glaze

HxW: 4.2 x 14.2 cm

F1907.321

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2

218

West

Goryeo period

Korea

United States

Toledo

OH

Bowl

Bowl

Gangjin or Buan kilns

12th-mid 13th century

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Dr. Horace N. Allen

Stoneware with celadon glaze

HxW: 5.2 x 17.1 cm

F1907.343a-c

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2

206

West

Goryeo period

Korea

United States

Toledo

OH

Stand

Stand

Possibly Buan kilns

second half of 13th century

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Yamanaka and Co.

Stoneware with white slip under celadon glaze

HxW: 8.7 x 18.6 cm

F1907.794

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2

180.1

West

Goryeo period

Korea

United States

New York

New York

Jar with inlaid design of three phoenixes

Jar

Gangjin or Buan kilns

first half of 13th century

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Yamanaka and Co.

Stoneware with white and black inlay and black painting under celadon glaze

HxW: 20.5 x 20.7 cm

F1907.367

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2

180

West

Goryeo period

Korea

United States

New York

New York

Jar with flattened sides

Jar

Gangjin or Buan kilns

late 13th-early 14th century

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Yamanaka and Co.

Stoneware with white and black slips inlaid under celadon glaze; gold lacquer repair

HxWxD: 25.4 x 20.2 x 17.8 cm

F1904.330

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2

179

West

Goryeo period

Korea

United States

New York

New York

Ewer

Ewer

Gangjin or Buan kilns

Freer purchased this ewer from the collection of Horace Allen, a Presbyterian medical missionary who traveled to Korea in 1884. Allen went on to assemble a remarkable collection of ceramics, many taken from the tombs of Korean nobility. Freer purchased his entire set of eighty pieces when it was offered for sale in 1907. The technique of preparing celadon glazes, which derive their color from traces of iron fired in a high-temperature reducing atmosphere, was first developed by Chinese potters and began to be used in Korea during the 10th century. Especially noteworthy here are the naturalistic sculptural elements, such as the elaborate finial surmounted by a phoenix atop the peony-blossom lid; the vessel and its ornamentation are based on metal prototypes.

late 11th-early 12th century

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Dr. Horace N. Allen

Stoneware with celadon glaze

HxW: 27.1 x 15.3 cm

F1907.286a-b

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2

178

West

Goryeo period

Korea

United States

Toledo

OH

Long-necked bottle

Bottle

Gangjin or Buan kilns

12th century

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Dr. Horace N. Allen

Stoneware with celadon glaze

HxW: 30.0 x 16.2 cm

F1907.283

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2

177

West

Goryeo period

Korea

United States

Toledo

OH

Bottle

Bottle

late 13th-early 14th century

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Stoneware with black and white inlays under celadon glaze

HxW: 35.6 x 19.8 cm

F1907.76

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2

172

West

Goryeo period

Buan or Gangjin

Korea

Bottle

Bottle

Gangjin kilns

14th century

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Yamanaka and Co.

Stoneware with white and black slips inlaid beneath celadon glaze; silver cap.

HxW: 36.2 x 20.8 cm

F1897.46a-b

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2

170

West

Goryeo period

Korea

United States

New York

New York

Ewer

Ewer

Gangjin or Buan kilns

first half of 12th century

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Dr. Horace N. Allen

Stoneware with celadon glaze

HxW: 27.0 x 16.8 cm

F1907.287

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2

166

West

Goryeo period

Korea

United States

Toledo

OH

Ewer

Ewer

Gangjin or Buan kilns

Freer purchased this ewer from the collection of Horace Allen, a Presbyterian medical missionary who traveled to Korea in 1884. Allen went on to assemble a remarkable collection of ceramics, many taken from the tombs of Korean nobility. Freer purchased his entire set of eighty pieces when it was offered for sale in 1907. This piece is an example of Korean celadon. The technique of preparing celadon glazes, which derive their color from traces of iron fired in a high-temperature reducing atmosphere, was first developed by Chinese potters and began to be used in Korea during the 10th century. This piece, which dates to the high point of Korean celadon production in the 12th century, features a grayish green glaze with areas of brown and a crackled surface. In the Peacock Room it was grouped with a number of other Korean celadons and beneath a row of green, slightly iridescent Chinese funeral jars.

late 12th-early 13th century

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Dr. Horace N. Allen

Stoneware with celadon glaze

HxW: 21.5 x 16.1 cm

F1907.288a-b

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2

165

West

Goryeo period

Korea

United States

Toledo

OH

Jar

Jar

19th century

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Yamanaka and Co.

Porcelain with ash glaze; lacquered wooden lid

HxW: 21.7 x 26.3 cm

F1898.1a-c

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2

142

West

Joseon period

Korea

United States

New York

New York

Ewer

Ewer

Wonsan-ri kilns or Bangsan-dong kilns

Freer purchased this ewer from the collection of Horace Allen, a Presbyterian medical missionary who traveled to Korea in 1884. Allen went on to assemble a remarkable collection of ceramics, many taken from the tombs of Korean nobility. Freer purchased his entire set of eighty pieces when it was offered for sale in 1907. This piece is an early example of Korean celadon. The technique of preparing celadon glazes, which derive their color from traces of iron fired in a high-temperature reducing atmosphere, was first developed by Chinese potters and began to be used in Korea during the 10th century. Like this plain, rounded ewer, early examples tend to reflect the shapes and decorative techniques of the Chinese Yue ware celadon, which was made in a region not far from Korea and may have been the source of celadon glaze technology in Korea

11th century

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Dr. Horace N. Allen

Stoneware with celadon glaze

HxW: 22.3 x 14.5 cm

F1907.284a-b

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2

65

East

Goryeo period

Korea

United States

Toledo

OH

Bowl

Bowl

Like many of the other tea bowls arranged on the mantel of the Peacock Room in 1908, this example, dating to the sixteenth century, was produced in Korea for a Japanese market. Freer found it, along with a number of similar examples, at the Fifth Avenue branch of Yamanaka and Company. Although many Western collectors of Asian ceramics favored highly decorated porcelains, Freer preferred the relatively simple forms and coarse textures of stoneware.

late 14th-early 15th century

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Yamanaka and Co.

Stoneware with wood-ash glaze

HxW: 7.8 x 17.0 cm

F1897.86

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2

32

North

Goryeo or Joseon period

Korea

United States

New York

New York

Tea bowl with brushed-slip decoration

Tea bowl

This Korean tea bowl with its cream colored glaze was purchased by Freer in 1897 from the New York branch of Yamanaka and Company, where he was a regular customer. That year, he purchased a number of similarly earth-toned bowls from the shop on Fifth Avenue. More than a decade later, he arrayed a number of them along the top of the mantel in the Peacock Room, just beneath Whistler's painting <i>La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine.</i>

16th century

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Yamanaka and Co.

Stoneware with white slip under clear glaze

Buncheong ware

HxW: 7.8 x 18.3 cm

F1897.64

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2

31

North

Joseon period

Korea

United States

New York

New York

Tea bowl, Totoya type

Tea bowl

This comparatively large bowl with straight flaring sides dates to the sixteenth or seventeenth century and was probably made by a Korean potter working in the Karatsu area of Japan. (Karatsu had a long history as a port of trade with both Korean and China.) Freer purchased the piece from Yamanaka and Company in New York in 1898. Ten years later, he displayed it on the mantel of the Peacock Room with a number of other tea bowls acquired from the same dealer.

late 16th-early 17th century

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Yamanaka and Co.

Stoneware with brushed-slip decoration under feldspathic glaze

HxW: 7.0 x 17.0 cm

F1898.87

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2

30

North

Joseon period

Korea

United States

New York

New York

Tea bowl

Tea bowl

Waegwan (Wakan) kiln

In the late 1890s, Freer acquired a number of simple, earth-toned tea bowls from the New York branch of Yamanaka and Company, where the collector was a regular customer. He believed this bowl, with its gray yellow-brown glaze and fine dark crackle, was from Japan. Scholars have since debated its origins, wondering if it were perhaps from Korea, not Japan as Freer thought. The most recent thinking is that this bowl is indeed Korean, dating from the Joseon period in the seventeenth century.

17th century

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Yamanaka and Co.

Stoneware with ash glaze

Busan ware

HxW: 8.6 x 14.7 cm

F1898.461

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2

29

North

Joseon period

Busan

Korea

United States

New York

New York

Tea bowl

Tea bowl

Undae-ri kilns

Korean ceramics such as this small bowl reached Japan through international trade. Their arrival coincided with efforts by Japanese practitioners of the tea ceremony to replace formal Chinese ceramics with a more intimate assemblage of tea utensils. In Korea, this small bowl might have been used for serving pickles or other condiments; in Japan, however, it was used as for tea, as indicated by the ring of brown tea-stain around the rim. In the course of use, the overall coating of white slip turned to dark ivory. This alteration in appearance was an especially prized feature of the undecorated bowls. Their shape and surface qualities had a lasting impact on Japanese preferences in ceramics.

second half of 16th century

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Yamanaka and Co.

Stoneware with white slip under clear glaze

Buncheong ware, Undae-ri type

HxW: 5.7 x 12.8 cm

F1898.71

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2

27

North

Joseon period

Korea

United States

New York

New York