H x Diam (overall): 66.1 x 39.4 cm (26 x 15 1/2 in)
Type:
Vessel
Origin:
Cambodia or Northeast Thailand
Date:
1177-1430
Period:
Angkor period
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, mottled and streaked, ranging from thin, translucent olive green to thick, dark brown. Some areas of wear, flaking and glaze loss. Random drips of glaze on otherwise unglazed interior.
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.
Collection:
National Museum of Asian Art Collection
Exhibition History:
Asian Traditions in Clay: The Hauge Gifts (October 29, 2000 to April 22, 2001)
Southeast Asian Ceramics: Ninth through Seventeenth Centuries (Fall of 1976)
Previous custodian or owner:
Mr. and Mrs. Osborne and Gratia Hauge ((1914-2004) and (1907-2000))
