Page 10 - Catalogue of the Edward Morse collection of Japanese pottery MFA BOSTON

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iv PREFACE

which are more curious than beautiful, and in some instances even posi-
tively ugly. The importance of each specimen has been fully weighed in
accordance with the effort to secure the work not only of every known

family of potters in Japan, but of all the generations of each family and
their collateral branches, with the various marks used by them. So far as
possible, the range of work of each potter has been attempted. The differ-
ent kinds of objects made in pottery have not been overlooked ; and while
this portion of the collection would be more appropriate in a museum of
ethnology, the artistic character of the people is well illustrated by the

objects associated not only with their tea-drinking, writing, flower arrange-
ment, etc., but with the more humble service of the kitchen.
Since the collection came into the possession of the Museum of Fine

Arts in 1892, sixteen hundred and seventy-seven specimens have been
added to it, of which two hundred and eighty-five have been by gifts, and
thirteen hundred and ninety-two by purchase.
Grateful acknowledgments are due to Dr. William Sturgis Bigelow, Mr.
Denman W. Ross, Dr. Charles G. Weld, Mr. George W. Wales, Mr. Henry
O. Havemeyer, Mr. Frederick S. Dickson, Mrs. John J. Glessner, Sir
William H. Van Home, Mr. Thomas E. Waggaman, Mr. John C. Ban-
croft, Mr. Charles L. Freer, Mr. James Ford Rhodes, Baron von Richt-
hoven, Mons. Louis Gonse, Mr. Rufus E. Moore, Mr. Charles H. Read,
Dr. T. C. Mendenhall, Mrs. Helen Abbott Michael, Dr. J. W. Baker,
U. S. N., Mons. S. Bing, Dr. Edward Wigglesworth, Hon. Charles A.
Dana, Mrs. Russell Robb, Lieutenant Foster, U. S. N., Mr. Howard Mans-

field, Mrs. Henrietta Page, Mr. Frederick H. Bigelow, Mr. Augustus
Hemenway, Mr. Samuel Colman, Mr. Francis Bartlett, Mr. George lies.
Miss Lucy Ellis, Dr. Justus Brinckmann, Mr. A. D. Weld French, Dr.

Ernest Hart, and many others, for their contributions to the collections.
The collection given by Dr. Bigelow embraces many specimens of great
rarity and beauty, among which should specially be mentioned a Chinese

bowl of the thirteenth century. The rarest object in the entire collection
is a bowl of one of the early Zengoros, given by Mr. Denman W. Ross
another exceedingly rare object, also representing one of the early Zen-

goros, was presented by Mr. George lies. A rare bowl of early Kyoto, the