The Peacock Room Comes to America: East Wall Ceramics

Photograph by George R. Swain.
Charles Lang Freer Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

China, Shaanxi province
Yuan dynasty, 14th century
Stoneware with white slip beneath clear glaze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1896.84

"Superb," declared Freer of this baluster-shaped jar, which he had purchased from Yamanaka and Company in New York in 1896. Although it was sold to the collector as a Korean vessel, he later noted that he believed the jar to be "Chinese—Sung or earlier." While this piece is actually from the Yuan dynasty, Freer was correct in identifying it as Chinese in origin. The dealer's original attribution as Korean presumably resulted from the use of overall white slip—a technique that would have been familiar in Japan (where Yamanaka and Company's flagship gallery was located) from its use on Korean tea bowls from the Choson period.

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This pot has been adopted by
Peggy and Dick

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China, Cizhou ware
Ming dynasty, late 14th–15th century
Stoneware with white slip under clear glaze, enamels over glaze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1901.64

This Ming dynasty bottle features figural decoration on the surface, as do many of the ceramics that Freer chose to display on the shelves along the east wall of the Peacock Room in 1908. He purchased it in 1901 from the Parisian art dealer Siegfried Bing. At that time, it was believed to be Korean, probably because of the white slip under a clear glaze.

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Japan, Edo period, probably 19th century
Stoneware with white slip and iron decoration under clear glaze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1903.234

Although this vase is now thought to be from Edo period Japan, Freer, who described it as "very fine," believed it to be either Korean or thirteenth-century Chinese. He purchased it from the New York store of Yamanaka and Company, and likely compared its landscape design to Japanese ink paintings and to similarly abbreviated views of nature by James McNeill Whistler.

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This pot has been adopted by
Melissa Calvert

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China, Jiangxi province
Northern Song dynasty, 11th–early 12th century
Porcelain with transparent pale blue (qingbai) glaze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1907.285

This Chinese porcelain ewer was excavated from a Goryeo dynasty tomb in Korea. It was acquired by Horace Allen, a Presbyterian medical missionary who traveled to Korea in 1884. Allen went on to assemble a remarkable collection of ceramics, many taken from the tombs of Korean nobility. Freer purchased his entire set of eighty pieces when it was offered for sale in 1907. He went over the collection with the scholar Ernest Fenollosa, who immediately wondered, "Can some of them be Chinese?" More recent scholarship has confirmed Fenollosa's hunch: this ewer, and some of the other pieces acquired from Allen, are now understood to be Chinese and to date to the Song dynasty. They document the extensive use of imported Chinese ceramics by the Goryeo nobility.

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Korea, Hwanghaenam-do or Gyeonggi-do province, Wonsan-ri or Bangsan-dong kilns Goryeo period, 11th century
Stoneware with celadon glaze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1907.284

Freer purchased this ewer from the collection of Horace Allen, a Presbyterian medical missionary who traveled to Korea in 1884. Allen went on to assemble a remarkable collection of ceramics, many taken from the tombs of Korean nobility. Freer purchased his entire set of eighty pieces when it was offered for sale in 1907. This piece is an early example of Korean celadon. The technique of preparing celadon glazes, which derive their color from traces of iron fired in a high-temperature reducing atmosphere, was first developed by Chinese potters and began to be used in Korea during the 10th century. Like this plain, rounded ewer, early examples tend to reflect the shapes and decorative techniques of the Chinese Yue ware celadon, which was made in a region not far from Korea and may have been the source of celadon glaze technology in Korea.

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Iran, Safavid period, 17th–18th century
Stone-paste painted under glaze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1903.196

Purchased by Freer from the Paris-based dealer Dikran Kelekian in 1903, this bottle, with its distinctive shape and porcelain-like appearance, was modeled after a Chinese prototype. It thus evoked for Freer the kind of cross-cultural connections that undergirded his collecting philosophy. He described it as "an interesting specimen of 16th century ware formerly in the celebrated collection of Captain Meyer," and noted that it was "valuable for its association quite apart from other qualities." In the Peacock Room, Freer displayed the bottle adjacent to other Iranian wares as well as Chinese porcelains and a Korean celadon ewer.

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Kyoto workshop, imitation of the Kenzan style
Japan, Meiji era, late 19th century
Buff clay; white slip, iron pigment under transparent and ochre-colored lead glazes
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1898.52

Dealer Bunkio Matsuki sold this water jar to Freer in 1898, describing it as a work by the renowned Kyoto ceramist Ogata Kenzan (1663–1743) or one of his earliest followers. Edward Sylvester Morse, a noted authority on Japanese art, bluntly informed Freer, "Don't believe Kenzan ever made that in the world"; the vessel is now attributed to a nineteenth-century imitator. In the Peacock Room in Detroit, Freer displayed this jar, with its design of cranes and fishnets, among other vessels featuring figurative surface decorations.

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Kyoto workshop, imitation of the Kenzan style Japan, Meiji era, late 19th century
Buff clay; iron pigment, enamels under transparent lead glaze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1897.20

This desk screen is one of several ceramics that Freer acquired and believed to be by the renowned Kyoto ceramist Ogata Kenzan (1663–1743), but since have been reattributed to nineteenth-century imitators. In his 1885 book Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings, Edward Sylvester Morse commented on the format of works like this: "In the old-fashioned genkan, or hall-way, there stands a solid screen of wood with heavy frame, supported by two transverse feet. This screen is called tsui-tate, and is an article of furniture belonging to the hall.... Diminutive models of the tsui-tate are made in pottery or porcelain, and these are for the purpose of standing in front of the ink-stone to prevent the mats from being spattered when the ink is rubbed." In the Peacock Room in Detroit, this desk screen was placed among ceramic vessels with similar landscape decorations.

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China, Cizhou-type ware
Qing dynasty, 19th century
Stoneware with white slip, iron pigment under and over clear glaze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1896.42

This lidded jar, which Freer acquired from the dealer Matsuki Bunkyo in 1896, was originally thought to be much older. Freer initially was uncertain if it were from the Song, Yuan, or Ming dynasty, but, perhaps because he thought it "fine," finally convinced himself in 1918 that it was indeed a Song piece. It is actually from the 19th century, and it was formed by the modern industrial technique of slip-casting. In the Peacock Room in Detroit, this jar was displayed on a high shelf along the east wall, where the butterfly design related to neighboring ceramics decorated with images of flora and fauna.

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China, Guangdong province, Shiwan ware
Ming dynasty, 17th century
Stoneware with opaque white glaze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1894.3

Western connoisseurs who collected Chinese ceramics at the turn of the century knew relatively little about earlier wares. Since the meticulously formed and decorated Qing dynasty porcelains were generally regarded as the culminating achievement of a centuries-old tradition, it was assumed that the earlier wares must be more heavily potted and glazed. Thus, when Freer purchased this jar in 1894, he accepted the Song dynasty date assigned to it. However, its robust shape, lustrous glaze, and bold floral decoration are characteristic of the Shiwan wares made in Guangdong province during the late Ming and Qing dynasties. This vase is an especially fine example of Shiwan ware, and its quality helps explain why both Chinese and Western collectors originally valued such objects so highly.

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This pot has been adopted in memory of Cornelia Machen Geddes.

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China, Eastern Han dynasty, early 1st–early 3rd century
Earthenware with copper-green lead-silicate glaze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1902.202

In the Peacock Room in Detroit, Freer displayed this Han dynasty tomb jar with several other examples of early Chinese funerary wares. The cultural significance of the jar, however, was probably less compelling for him than its subtly textured, slightly iridescent green surface. Shortly after he purchased this vessel, he began to acquire medieval Near Eastern ceramics and contemporary art pottery from Detroit's Pewabic workshop. Both of these types of ceramics also featured iridescent glazes and mottled surfaces, qualities that, for Freer, resonated with the tonalism of his American paintings collection.

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