Cylindrical vat with three lugs on the shoulder, a short neck, and wide mouth

Tall vat with flat base, elongated cylindrical body, high squared shoulder bearing three ornamental lugs, low neck, wide mouth with thick everted rim.
Thrown from coils attached to flat disc base. Base flat, deeply cratered, worn around circumperence of slightly concave center, some gouges probably made at time of removing vessel from turntable. Seams suggest that base is a composite of several wads of clay, imperfectly joined, to create exceptionally large diameter. Vessel constructed in sections, with intervals of drying–perhaps four wall sections plus shoulder and neck. Rough horizontal groves from throwing of coils visible on interior. Less prominant throwing marks, and indentations at seams, visible on exterior. Two carved tiers at base of neck attachment, above which short neck curves in and rises, then curves out in thick everted rim with flange.
Clay: stoneware, medium golden-brown where exposed, lighter shade where worn away on base.
Decoration: at base, trimmed rounded edge followed by three closely-spaced bevels. Band of horizontal combing, with comb internittenly and rhythmically jabbed into the clay, creating rough cross-hatched texture. Two wide incised horizontal grooves. Band of combing, using four-toothed combing tool, with curved undulations equally spaced upwards and downwards. Band of combed horizontal lines, probably using same four-toothed combing tool. Band of combing using four-toothed combing tool, uneven undulations slightly elongated to left. Immediately above (with no intervening horizontal lines), dynamic combing, using four-toothed comb, with spikes pointing upward, reaching almost to midpoint of vessel body. After an interval, the same motif repeated in reverese, with spikes pointing downward. Pair of incised horizontal lines. Band of combing, using four-toothed comb, uneven undulations slightly elongated to left. Pair of incised horizontal lines. Band of cross-hatching created by repetition of parallel diagonal marks incised freehand, first slanting down to left, then down to right. Single incised horizontal line. Single incised zigzag line, tending to point at top, curve at bottom. This line occurs just below curve of shoulder. Close to base of neck, single incised line, gently undulating, followed by another undulating single line with slightly deeper curves. (In spots the upper undulating line runs over base of neck, showing neck was completed before decoration began.) In intevening space on shoulder defined by the zigzag and undulating lines, eleven deep downward-pointing chevrons, incised freehand, consisting of four pairs of two closely spaced lines (creating “band”), descending from evenly spaced points around upper undulating line and converging just above zigzag line
Three ornamental lugs attached over the paired undulating lines at equidistant points around shoulder, made from nubbins of clay pinched into flat-topped triangular form pointing slightly in toward neck.
Glaze: iron glaze,

Historical period(s)
Angkor period, 1177-1430
Medium
Stoneware with iron glaze
Dimensions
H x Diam (overall): 66.1 x 39.4 cm (26 x 15 1/2 in)
Geography
Cambodia or Northeast Thailand
Credit Line
Gift of Osborne and Gratia Hauge
Collection
Arthur M. Sackler Collection
Accession Number
S1996.114
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Vat

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

Tall vat with flat base, elongated cylindrical body, high squared shoulder bearing three ornamental lugs, low neck, wide mouth with thick everted rim.
Thrown from coils attached to flat disc base. Base flat, deeply cratered, worn around circumperence of slightly concave center, some gouges probably made at time of removing vessel from turntable. Seams suggest that base is a composite of several wads of clay, imperfectly joined, to create exceptionally large diameter. Vessel constructed in sections, with intervals of drying--perhaps four wall sections plus shoulder and neck. Rough horizontal groves from throwing of coils visible on interior. Less prominant throwing marks, and indentations at seams, visible on exterior. Two carved tiers at base of neck attachment, above which short neck curves in and rises, then curves out in thick everted rim with flange.
Clay: stoneware, medium golden-brown where exposed, lighter shade where worn away on base.
Decoration: at base, trimmed rounded edge followed by three closely-spaced bevels. Band of horizontal combing, with comb internittenly and rhythmically jabbed into the clay, creating rough cross-hatched texture. Two wide incised horizontal grooves. Band of combing, using four-toothed combing tool, with curved undulations equally spaced upwards and downwards. Band of combed horizontal lines, probably using same four-toothed combing tool. Band of combing using four-toothed combing tool, uneven undulations slightly elongated to left. Immediately above (with no intervening horizontal lines), dynamic combing, using four-toothed comb, with spikes pointing upward, reaching almost to midpoint of vessel body. After an interval, the same motif repeated in reverese, with spikes pointing downward. Pair of incised horizontal lines. Band of combing, using four-toothed comb, uneven undulations slightly elongated to left. Pair of incised horizontal lines. Band of cross-hatching created by repetition of parallel diagonal marks incised freehand, first slanting down to left, then down to right. Single incised horizontal line. Single incised zigzag line, tending to point at top, curve at bottom. This line occurs just below curve of shoulder. Close to base of neck, single incised line, gently undulating, followed by another undulating single line with slightly deeper curves. (In spots the upper undulating line runs over base of neck, showing neck was completed before decoration began.) In intevening space on shoulder defined by the zigzag and undulating lines, eleven deep downward-pointing chevrons, incised freehand, consisting of four pairs of two closely spaced lines (creating "band"), descending from evenly spaced points around upper undulating line and converging just above zigzag line
Three ornamental lugs attached over the paired undulating lines at equidistant points around shoulder, made from nubbins of clay pinched into flat-topped triangular form pointing slightly in toward neck.
Glaze: iron glaze,

Label

The basic purpose of large jars of this shape was storage, but Khmer devotees also earned religious merit by donating utilitarian ceramics to Hindu or Buddhist temples and monasteries. Two jars similar to this one, excavated within the bounds of the Khmer Empire, bear dedicatory inscriptions incised on their shoulders beneath the glaze, indicating that their donors ordered them especially for donation.

Published References
  • Louise Allison Cort, George Williams, David P. Rehfuss. Ceramics in Mainland Southeast Asia. Washington. .
  • Marie-France Dupoizat. Recherches sur les Jarres en Asie du Sud-Est. Paris. .
  • Dean Frasché. Southeast Asian Ceramics: Ninth through Seventeenth Centuries. New York. cat. 4, pp. 32-33.
  • Louise Allison Cort, Massumeh Farhad, Ann C. Gunter. Asian Traditions in Clay: The Hauge Gifts. Washington, 2000. cat. 75, p. 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. 75, 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
SI Usage Statement

Usage Conditions Apply

There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

The information presented on this website may be revised and updated at any time as ongoing research progresses or as otherwise warranted. Pending any such revisions and updates, information on this site may be incomplete or inaccurate or may contain typographical errors. Neither the Smithsonian nor its regents, officers, employees, or agents make any representations about the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or timeliness of the information on the site. Use this site and the information provided on it subject to your own judgment. The Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery welcome information that would augment or clarify the ownership history of objects in their collections.