Wooden Vessel
date: label: Accession Date
content: 30 Aug 2012
label: Collection Date
content: 1887 to 1930
name: label: Collector
content: Edward S. Curtis
label: Donor Name
content: James "Jim" H. Graybill
notes: label: Notes
content: Turned wooden vessel or vase with fitted lid; decorated with inlaid pieces of pink-colored plastic, malachite and metal ornaments. Louise Cort, Curator for Ceramics at the Freer/Sackler, 2012, identifies this as a wooden vessel with embedded metal ornaments (menuki or sword handle ornaments) and gemstones (perhaps the sort used in hair ornaments for women?); a 19th century (ca 1870-1900) hybrid work. Two typed sheets of paper came with the artifact; transcriptions of them are below. Paper 1: "Ann, Janet & John, Hal got this wooden jug from Billy (there is correspondence where she speaks of it.) Hal told us it stood on the mantel over the fireplace of the "cabin" (Puget Sound) where Beth, Hal and Florence were children. He prized it over books, pictures, etc. The appraisal we had done in Santa Barbara for Hal's estate told us it comes from Japan and is decorated with stones and figures taken from Japanese swords. It is unusual, but she said now, in her opinion, not of great value...but check it out... she told us now (1988) Japan is "out" and China stuff is "in". Hal told us it was given to his father, Edward S Curtis, by a Japanese man who was a guest to their home. Hal prized it highly and it was very important to him. Curtis mentions this jug in his will. Mom, 2/5/89." Paper 2, presumably information from the past appraisal referred to in Paper 1: "Jar, old, Japanese, wood, studded with menuki, coral, malachite, 7 1/2".
label: Record Last Modified
content: 2 Mar 2017
label: Specimen Count
content: 2
place: label: Place
content: Japan, Asia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Japanese
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 2058745
label: USNM Number
content: E432869-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Jar
physicalDescription: label: Height - Base To Lip
content: 17 cm
label: Diameter - Lid
content: 8 cm
label: Diameter - Vessel Rim
content: 7 cm