Bottle

Purchased by Freer from the Paris-based dealer Dikran Kelekian in 1903, this bottle, with its distinctive shape and porcelain-like appearance, was modeled after a Chinese prototype. It thus evoked for Freer the kind of cross-cultural connections that undergirded his collecting philosophy. He described it as "an interesting specimen of 16th-century ware formerly in the celebrated collection of Captain Meyer," and noted that it was "valuable for its association quite apart from other qualities." In the Peacock Room, Freer displayed the bottle adjacent to other Iranian wares as well as Chinese porcelains and a Korean celadon ewer.