Vase with design of peonies

Grotesque head loop handles appear on either side of this grayish beaker-shaped flower vase of the Edo period (1700-1820). Freer purchased the stoneware vase, which bears a design of peonies, from a customary dealer, Matsuki Bunkyo, in 1900. The vase had previously belonged to Ikeda Seisuke, a noted Kyoto dealer. In his object notes, Freer referred to "the elder Ikeda of Kioto [sic], who showed me the jar during one of my early trips to Japan." This vase is decidedly less subtle in its form and decoration than most of the ceramics that Freer collected, suggesting that sentimental memories of his first visit to Japan in 1895 may have influenced his purchase of the piece when it was offered by Matsuki some five years later.