Gourd-shaped bottle in the form of a worshiper

Gourd-shaped bottle with head and arms of worshipper. Wheel-thrown from disk and coil, with applied, incised and impressed decoration. Base smooth, undulating and wrinkled texture from original impression of flat clay dish on turntable, center slightly recessed from flat “rim.” Impression of somewhat disporportionate weight from extra thickness of lower walls. Lower body tapers upward from narrow base to widest diameter at “waist” of figure. Hemispherical “head” tapers upward into elongated neck with concave profile, ending in everted rim.
Clay: stoneware, light gray on interior, slightly warm orange flush on exposed surface of foot, with minute black specks.
Decoration: on base, trimmed rounded edge of foot beneath sequence of three bevels of approximately equal width.
On torso, thin arms indicated by incised lines beginning at upper edge of “torso,” ending at wrists bearing incised bracelets; clasped hands applied in relief as single knob tapered to vertical ridge, with fingers indicated by parallel lines incised on each side. Sharp flange at join of “torso” and “head”; just below, a “necklace” indicated by a band of closely-spaced impressed marks above a shallowly incised horizontal line. Most marks have pointed upper edges, but some are squared, as though a pointed thin stick used to make the marks grew gradually blunted.
On the head, applied and incised features concentrated at front of hemisphere: eyebrows indicated by parallel incised lines in shallow horizontal S-shape; ridge of applied nose separating eyebrows and ending in upturned triangle; eyes applied as flattened circles with impressed trianglular marks (pointed tip of stick?) indicating pupils; mouth applied as short horizontal bar with incised line defining lips; applied shallow C-shaped ears near “cheeks.” Around rest of “head,” beginning just outside ears, widely spaced sets of three incised vertical lines indicating hair.
At base of bottle neck, two incised horizontal lines creating flange.
Glaze: ash glaze, translucent, lustrous, crackled, pale green on most surfaces, slightly deeper green where pooled, extending inside bottle neck and ending at second lowest or lowest bevel of base, with one small overrun. Diagonal lower edge of glaze suggests that vessel was dipped into vat of glaze. Two hemispherical marks in glaze edge are outlines of glazer’s fingers. Unglazed clay on bevel of base (not bottom) bears traces of blackish substance, perhaps soot. Dirt deeply imbedded in crackles of glaze.

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Historical period(s)
Angkor period, 1075-1250
Medium
Stoneware with wood-ash glaze
Dimensions
H x W x D (overall): 29.1 x 16.7 x 17.2 cm (11 7/16 x 6 9/16 x 6 3/4 in)
Geography
Cambodia or Northeast Thailand
Credit Line
Gift of Osborne and Gratia Hauge
Collection
Arthur M. Sackler Collection
Accession Number
S1996.110
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Bottle

Keywords
Angkor period (802 - 1431), Cambodia, green glaze, Hauge collection, stoneware, Thailand, wood-ash glaze, worshipper
Provenance

From circa 1970-72 to 1996
Mr. and Mrs. Victor Hauge [1]

From 1996
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Osborne and Gratia Hauge in 1996 [2]

Notes:

[1] Object file. Most likely acquired from a dealer in Ayutthaya or Bangkok, circa 1970-1972.

[2] Ownership of collected objects sometimes changed between the Hauge families.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Mr. and Mrs. Osborne and Gratia Hauge (1914-2004) and (died 2000)

Description

Gourd-shaped bottle with head and arms of worshipper. Wheel-thrown from disk and coil, with applied, incised and impressed decoration. Base smooth, undulating and wrinkled texture from original impression of flat clay dish on turntable, center slightly recessed from flat "rim." Impression of somewhat disporportionate weight from extra thickness of lower walls. Lower body tapers upward from narrow base to widest diameter at "waist" of figure. Hemispherical "head" tapers upward into elongated neck with concave profile, ending in everted rim.
Clay: stoneware, light gray on interior, slightly warm orange flush on exposed surface of foot, with minute black specks.
Decoration: on base, trimmed rounded edge of foot beneath sequence of three bevels of approximately equal width.
On torso, thin arms indicated by incised lines beginning at upper edge of "torso," ending at wrists bearing incised bracelets; clasped hands applied in relief as single knob tapered to vertical ridge, with fingers indicated by parallel lines incised on each side. Sharp flange at join of "torso" and "head"; just below, a "necklace" indicated by a band of closely-spaced impressed marks above a shallowly incised horizontal line. Most marks have pointed upper edges, but some are squared, as though a pointed thin stick used to make the marks grew gradually blunted.
On the head, applied and incised features concentrated at front of hemisphere: eyebrows indicated by parallel incised lines in shallow horizontal S-shape; ridge of applied nose separating eyebrows and ending in upturned triangle; eyes applied as flattened circles with impressed trianglular marks (pointed tip of stick?) indicating pupils; mouth applied as short horizontal bar with incised line defining lips; applied shallow C-shaped ears near "cheeks." Around rest of "head," beginning just outside ears, widely spaced sets of three incised vertical lines indicating hair.
At base of bottle neck, two incised horizontal lines creating flange.
Glaze: ash glaze, translucent, lustrous, crackled, pale green on most surfaces, slightly deeper green where pooled, extending inside bottle neck and ending at second lowest or lowest bevel of base, with one small overrun. Diagonal lower edge of glaze suggests that vessel was dipped into vat of glaze. Two hemispherical marks in glaze edge are outlines of glazer's fingers. Unglazed clay on bevel of base (not bottom) bears traces of blackish substance, perhaps soot. Dirt deeply imbedded in crackles of glaze.

Label

Gourd-shaped bottles with human faces are distinctive Khmer products, yet their purpose is not known.

Published References
  • Louise Allison Cort, George Williams, David P. Rehfuss. Ceramics in Mainland Southeast Asia. Washington. .
  • Roxanna M. Brown. The Ceramics of South-East Asia: Their Dating and Identification. Oxford in Asia Studies in Ceramics Kuala Lumpur and New York. pl. 22, fig. 75.
  • Louise Allison Cort, Massumeh Farhad, Ann C. Gunter. Asian Traditions in Clay: The Hauge Gifts. Washington, 2000. cat. 54, pp. 109, 146.
  • Louise Allison Cort. Kumeeru touki: Haugi Correkushon wo chushin to shita kumeeru toki no kenkyu [Khmer Ceramics: Research on Khmer Ceramics Centering on the Hauge Collection]. no. 22. cat. 54, p. 164.
  • Thomas Lawton, Thomas W. Lentz. Beyond the Legacy: Anniversary Acquisitions for the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. vol. 1 Washington, 1998. pp. 208-211.
Collection Area(s)
Southeast Asian Art
Web Resources
Ceramics in Mainland Southeast Asia
Google Cultural Institute
F|S Southeast Asia
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