Jar

Dated to the Ming dynasty, this bluish-black glazed jar is chromatically complex, with areas of lighter tone and an iridescent surface. When Freer purchased it in 1897 from Yamanaka and Company, it was thought to be Japanese. Freer noted that it was "beautiful," and, in his inventory notes, observed, "interesting when seen in individual case; also very impressive shown with specimens of both Chinese and Japanese Temmoku" (the highly regarded dark-glazed tea wares first made at kilns in Fujian province in China and brought to Japan in the thirteenth century by Japanese Buddhist monks). In the Peacock Room, this jar was not, however, shown individually, but was grouped with a number of similarly dark colored East Asian vessels as well as an array of Raqqa ware from the Near East.