Fragment of the side wall of a large storage jar

Shape: Fragment of the side wall of a large, iron-brown Khmer storage jar. The shard is uniformly 1.4 cm thick.

Clay: Rough, coarse with many large inclusions, some approaching the size of small pebbles. The stoneware body changes hue from dark gray inside the glazed face to a buff on the unglazed inner surface of the jar. The inclusions are mostly brick-red or sandy colored. Air pockets are few and small. The body of the jar oxidized brick-red where it burned through the glaze.

Glaze: The patchy iron-brown glaze has adhered well in the grooves of the incised design but is very uneven elsewhere. The inside of the shard is completely unglazed.

Decoration: The entire shard is covered with incised geometric designs. There are (at least) two incised horizontal lines at the top of the shard and seven at the bottom. These two sets of horizontal rings are connected at 3.0-cm intervals by incised vertical lines which appear in sets of three. Below the bottom set of horizontal rings there is the remnant of a design of combed incising. The motif of this combed design cannot be discerned.

Marks: “Angkor Thom Pool” is written in pencil on the inside surface of the shard.

Historical period(s)
Angkor period, 1075-1430
Medium
Stoneware with iron glaze
Dimensions
H x W x D: 2 x 17.4 x 10.3 cm (13/16 x 6 7/8 x 4 1/16 in)
Geography
Cambodia or Northeast Thailand
Credit Line
Gift of John A. Pope
Collection
Freer Study Collection
Accession Number
FSC-P-465
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Jar (fragment)

Keywords
Angkor period (802 - 1431), Cambodia, stoneware, Thailand
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: Fragment of the side wall of a large, iron-brown Khmer storage jar. The shard is uniformly 1.4 cm thick.

Clay: Rough, coarse with many large inclusions, some approaching the size of small pebbles. The stoneware body changes hue from dark gray inside the glazed face to a buff on the unglazed inner surface of the jar. The inclusions are mostly brick-red or sandy colored. Air pockets are few and small. The body of the jar oxidized brick-red where it burned through the glaze.

Glaze: The patchy iron-brown glaze has adhered well in the grooves of the incised design but is very uneven elsewhere. The inside of the shard is completely unglazed.

Decoration: The entire shard is covered with incised geometric designs. There are (at least) two incised horizontal lines at the top of the shard and seven at the bottom. These two sets of horizontal rings are connected at 3.0-cm intervals by incised vertical lines which appear in sets of three. Below the bottom set of horizontal rings there is the remnant of a design of combed incising. The motif of this combed design cannot be discerned.

Marks: "Angkor Thom Pool" is written in pencil on the inside surface of the shard.

Marking(s)

"Angkor Thom Pool" is written in pencil on the inside surface of the shard.

Collection Area(s)
Southeast Asian Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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