Jar

Described by Freer as "very beautiful," this jar was one of a number of Near Eastern ceramics and Egyptian antiquities shipped to him on approval by the Parisian art dealer Siegfried Bing. In 1904, when he purchased this vessel, Freer had only recently turned his attention to ancient and medieval glazed wares from the Near East. As the availability of Japanese art in Western markets began to decline, Bing and other dealers looked to the arts of the Islamic world, where recent unofficial excavations had made ceramics and textiles available. Raqqa ware was especially appealing to Freer, who discerned chromatic harmonies among his already-substantial collection of East Asian ceramics, his tonalist American paintings, and the iridescent turquoise- and green-glazed vessels from the Near East. He eventually amassed a substantial collection of Near Eastern ceramics. In Detroit, they were prominently featured throughout the Peacock Room, most notably massed around Whistler's La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine and in the eye-level shelves along the west wall.