Tea-leaf storage jar
date: label: Date
content: 19th century
label: Period
content: Edo period
notes: label: Description
content: Tea-leaf storage jar, ovoid, four small loop handles, flat base with thin partial glaze wash.
label: Description
content: Clay: cream-white, hard, dense, vitreous, resonant.
label: Description
content: Glaze: cream-white broadly flushed with dull pink, flecked with copper green, fine crackle.
label: Label
content: Eyecatching sets of tea-leaf storage jars in matching glazes were displayed in storefronts of tea merchants and held varieties of bulk teas for sale. The Shigaraki kilns were known for such jars, which bore white, copper-green, cobalt-blue, or black glaze. On this jar, spots of copper pigment flecking the white glaze suggest the potter may have intended for the glaze to appear green, although the firing in the kiln did not melt the copper. Seto kilns also used the white rice-straw-ash glaze, and the exact source of this jar is not yet known.
label: Provenance
content: To 1898
label: Provenance
content: Yamanaka & Company, to 1898 [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1898 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Yamanaka & Company in 1898 [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 1920
label: Provenance
content: Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] See Original Pottery List, L. 52, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. The majority of Charles Lang Freer’s purchases from Yamanaka & Company were made at its New York branch. Yamanaka & Company maintained branch offices, at various times, in Boston, Chicago, London, Peking, Shanghai, Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto. During the summer, the company also maintained seasonal locations in Newport, Bar Harbor, and Atlantic City.
label: Provenance
content: [2] See note 1.
label: Provenance
content: [3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.
label: Collection
content: Freer Gallery of Art Collection
label: Exhibition History
content: Rinpa Screens (February 25, 2023 to February 24, 2024)
label: Exhibition History
content: Tea for...Everyone: Popular Ceramics for Drinking Tea in Japan (March 8 to October 19, 2008)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Yamanaka and Co. 山中商会 (1917-1965) (C.L. Freer source)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
place: label: Origin
content: Shigaraki, Shiga prefecture, Japan
topic: label: Topic
content: ceramic
label: Topic
content: Shigaraki ware
label: Topic
content: Edo period (1615 - 1868)
label: Topic
content: tea
label: Topic
content: Japan
label: Topic
content: stoneware
label: Topic
content: Japanese Art
label: Topic
content: Charles Lang Freer collection
setName: label: Related Online Resources
content: Google Arts & Culture
label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Charles Lang Freer
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: F1898.482
objectType: label: Type
content: Vessel
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Stoneware with rice-straw-ash glaze, flecked with copper-green
label: Dimensions
content: H x Diam: 30.3 × 25.4 cm (11 15/16 × 10 in)
label: Style
content: Shigaraki ware