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Crackle-ware Vase

Crackle-ware Vase

Artist/Maker
Date19th century
MediumGlazed porcelain
DimensionsOverall: 8 1/2 × 5 in. (21.6 × 12.7 cm)
Credit LineGift of D. A. Bunker (OC 1883)
Object number1894.1
Status
Not on view
More Information
Crackle-ware may have begun as a mistake but it developed into one of the most prized glaze types in China and among Western collectors. It is created by sudden cooling: when the surface glaze cools more rapidly than the interior clay body, it causes contraction and leaves a pattern of cracks that the potter emphasizes by staining.

This piece has the distinction of being the first work of Asian art registered in the collection of Oberlin College. It was donated in 1894 by Dalzell A. Bunker, an Oberlin alumnus who worked as a missionary in Korea from 1886 to 1926.
Exhibition History
An Eclectic Ensemble: The History of the Asian Art Collection at Oberlin
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 27, 1999 - August 30, 2000 )
Chinese and Japanese Art from Antiquity to the Present
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 17, 2002 - June 9, 2003 )
Asian Art and the Allen: American Collectors in the Early 20th Century
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 19, 2014 - July 12, 2015 )
A Century of Asian Art at Oberlin: Ceramics
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (July 22, 2017 - May 27, 2018 )
Collections
  • Asian
This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator. Noticed a mistake? Have some extra information about this object? Please contact us.