Bottle with a long neck and everted rim

Bottle with hemispherical body, widest diameter roughly at mid-point, slightly concave shoulders, clearly defined neck seam, elongated neck, and everted dish-shaped mouth with flanged rim.
Wheel-thrown from coil and flat disk, with incised decoration. Base flat, uneven, with slightly higher ridge around circumference (remains of coil attachment?). Thickened ridge between shoulder and neck perhaps indicating where a clay coil was added to throw neck separately from body. Fine parallel lines on outside and inside of neck may be traces of cloth used for throwing. Considerable dry earth remains in vessel, making judgement of actual weight impossible.
Clay: reddish on bottom, medium gray on exposed surface of lower wall, in break on rim, and by flaking glaze.
Decoration: edge of base trimmed with smooth curved profile beneath three roughly-cut bevels. Pair of horizontal lines incised (combed?) somewhat above widest point of body. Above shoulder, band of four incised horizontal lines beneath thickened ridge; single wide incised line above ridge. Between these two sets of lines, spikey scalloped combing, made with five-toothed combing tool, roughly and unevenly incised.
Glaze: iron glaze, translucent amber where thin, nearly opaque dark brown where thick, streaked and uneven, with rivulets of darker, thicker glaze on neck and body. Vessel perhaps dipped twice into vat of glaze: underlying thin coating reaches nearly to base, while lower edge of darker coating stops above highest bevel, with individual rivulets extending further. Glaze extends evenly deep into neck, runs further in rivulets. Chunks of kiln debris adhering to glaze on inside of neck and vessel wall. Some flaking and loss of glaze, especially on lower wall.

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Historical period(s)
Angkor period, 1177-1430
Medium
Stoneware with iron glaze
Dimensions
H x Diam (overall): 28.7 x 20 cm (11 5/16 x 7 7/8 in)
Geography
Northeast Thailand
Credit Line
Gift of Osborne and Gratia Hauge
Collection
Arthur M. Sackler Collection
Accession Number
S1996.113
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Bottle

Keywords
Angkor period (802 - 1431), brown and black glaze, Cambodia, Hauge collection, stoneware, Thailand
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

Bottle with hemispherical body, widest diameter roughly at mid-point, slightly concave shoulders, clearly defined neck seam, elongated neck, and everted dish-shaped mouth with flanged rim.
Wheel-thrown from coil and flat disk, with incised decoration. Base flat, uneven, with slightly higher ridge around circumference (remains of coil attachment?). Thickened ridge between shoulder and neck perhaps indicating where a clay coil was added to throw neck separately from body. Fine parallel lines on outside and inside of neck may be traces of cloth used for throwing. Considerable dry earth remains in vessel, making judgement of actual weight impossible.
Clay: reddish on bottom, medium gray on exposed surface of lower wall, in break on rim, and by flaking glaze.
Decoration: edge of base trimmed with smooth curved profile beneath three roughly-cut bevels. Pair of horizontal lines incised (combed?) somewhat above widest point of body. Above shoulder, band of four incised horizontal lines beneath thickened ridge; single wide incised line above ridge. Between these two sets of lines, spikey scalloped combing, made with five-toothed combing tool, roughly and unevenly incised.
Glaze: iron glaze, translucent amber where thin, nearly opaque dark brown where thick, streaked and uneven, with rivulets of darker, thicker glaze on neck and body. Vessel perhaps dipped twice into vat of glaze: underlying thin coating reaches nearly to base, while lower edge of darker coating stops above highest bevel, with individual rivulets extending further. Glaze extends evenly deep into neck, runs further in rivulets. Chunks of kiln debris adhering to glaze on inside of neck and vessel wall. Some flaking and loss of glaze, especially on lower wall.

Label

At present, Khmer ceramics are known to have been made in two areas of the Khmer Empire. In the Angkor region, by the tenth century, several groups of kilns produced small wares bearing pale green ash glaze (nos. 50 and 51) as well as unglazed vessels and roof tiles. By the late eleventh century, numerous widely scattered, larger kilns operating in the region now comprising Buriram Province in Thailand made vessels in larger sizes and more varieties of  shapes, using both ash glaze and brown iron glaze. Ongoing archaeological investigations will surely uncover other production sites for Khmer ceramics.

Published References
  • Louise Allison Cort, George Williams, David P. Rehfuss. Ceramics in Mainland Southeast Asia. Washington. .
  • Louise Allison Cort, Massumeh Farhad, Ann C. Gunter. Asian Traditions in Clay: The Hauge Gifts. Washington, 2000. cat. 73, pp. 97, 148.
  • 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. 73, p. 166.
  • 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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