Vase

Speculating about the date of this Chinese vase, Freer mused, "The paste suggests Sung, but the glaze is Yuanish. Learn dynasty and, if possible, province." He had purchased this piece, along with seventeen other specimens, from the Dana Collection Sale, where it was described in the auction catalogue as a "tall jar, with gray crackle, claire-de-lune glaze, broken by crimson and purple splash" Although he was unsure of its precise attribution, Freer did believe this example—with its distinctive blue glaze—was Jun ware, produced in Henan province of China from the Song dynasty through the fifteenth century. It is actually a later example of a Qing dynasty Jun-style glaze. In the Peacock Room, which Freer called "the blue room," this bottle was one of more than forty Jun or Jun-style ceramics displayed along the south wall, just beneath Whistler's allegorical mural of two battling peacocks.