Pitcher

Described by Freer as "an interesting specimen, much restored," this jar was one of a number of Near Eastern ceramics shipped to him on approval by the Parisian art dealer Dikran Kelekian. In 1903, 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, Kelekian and other dealers looked to the arts of the Islamic world, where recent unofficial excavations had made ceramics and textiles available. This vessel, which dates to the seventeenth or eighteenth century, was already ravaged by time, with a broken foot, a hole in one side, and yellow and brown discolorations all over the brilliant cream-colored glaze. Freer, however, regarded these imperfections as aesthetically distinctive, and because of this, Raqqa ware was especially appealing to Freer. He discerned chromatic harmonies among his already-substantial collection of East Asian ceramics, his tonalist American paintings, and the iridescent 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.