Fragment of the base of a covered ceramic box

Shape: Shard consists of a fragment of the base of a covered ceramic box. The box wall is 0.5 cm thick while the base itself is 0.6 cm. The base is flat with no footring.

Clay: White, very fine-grained, porcelain. There are many fine gray and black inclusions and small air pockets.

Glaze: The box is glazed with a bubbly, pale seawater-green glaze. The translucent glaze is quite heavily crackled and is darker green where it has pooled. The interior of the box is glazed, as is the outer edge of the bottom. The inner portion of the bottom is unglazed. There is evidence that clay balls were used to separate this pot from its lower neighbor during firing.

Decoration: None.

Marks: “ATP” presumably standing for “Angkor Thom Pool” is written in pencil on one broken edge of the shard.

Historical period(s)
Southern Song dynasty, 1127-1279
Medium
Porcelain with pale blue (qingbai) glaze
Style
Qingbai ware
Dimensions
H x W x D: 2.8 x 6.6 x 3 cm (1 1/8 x 2 5/8 x 1 3/16 in)
Geography
China, Jiangxi province, Jingdezhen
Credit Line
Gift of John A. Pope
Collection
Freer Study Collection
Accession Number
FSC-P-461
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Container
Type

Box (fragment)

Keywords
China, Qingbai ware, Southern Song dynasty (1127 - 1279), stoneware
Provenance

To 1957
John A. Pope (1906-1982), Washington DC, collected between August 1956 and April 1957 in Angkor, Cambodia. [1]

From 1957
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of John A. Pope, Washington DC [2]

Notes:

[1] See Curatorial Remark 2 in the object record. See also “Ceramics in Mainland and Southeast Asia: Collections in the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery”, copy in object file, Collections Management Office.

[2] See note 1. See also object file, Collections Management Office.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Dr. John Alexander Pope 1906-1982

Description

Shape: Shard consists of a fragment of the base of a covered ceramic box. The box wall is 0.5 cm thick while the base itself is 0.6 cm. The base is flat with no footring.

Clay: White, very fine-grained, porcelain. There are many fine gray and black inclusions and small air pockets.

Glaze: The box is glazed with a bubbly, pale seawater-green glaze. The translucent glaze is quite heavily crackled and is darker green where it has pooled. The interior of the box is glazed, as is the outer edge of the bottom. The inner portion of the bottom is unglazed. There is evidence that clay balls were used to separate this pot from its lower neighbor during firing.

Decoration: None.

Marks: "ATP" presumably standing for "Angkor Thom Pool" is written in pencil on one broken edge of the shard.

Collection Area(s)
Chinese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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