1.  (Louise A. Cort,  April 1991) Bob Retka, 28 August 1990, asks whether  this jar might be from the Kalong kiln complex in northern Thailand.

2.  (L.A. Cort, 13  June 1995) "Historical Region: Annam" added to attribution.

3.  (Louise Cort, 18  April 1998) When a group of Southeast Asian ceramics collectors, including Jack  Lydman, studied this jar yesterday, they concurred in  attributing it to the Kalong kilns of northern Thailand, on the basis of shape,  clay, and ivory-toned glaze—all different from the small Vietnamese pieces also  given by Dean Frasché. Frasché’s 1976 exhibition of Southeast Asian ceramics  did not include any small, undecorated Kalong ware pieces of this type,  although he must have been familiar with them from visits to the area,  including one in 1974 (Frasché 1976, 50–51, 53).

     

  Praya Nakon  Prah Ram, who discovered the Kalong kilns in 1933,  attributed to Kalong a small jar of this type that he had acquired in Tung Yang  in Uttaradit (Praya Nakon Prah Ram 1936, 63, pl.  XIV). John Shaw, who has studied the Kalong kiln sites extensively, illustrates  jars of this type (Shaw 1989, 56 [upper left], 185 [upper right, h. 4.5 cm]). He  includes such jars in his Group I, "the largest group, the classic wares  of Kalong," which he states were made at kilns throughout the Kalong  complex in the Wiang Kalong valley (ibid., 43). Roxanna Brown illustrates measured drawings of  Kalong monochrome wares (Brown 1988, 85).

     

  The dating of Kalong wares remains unresolved.  Dean Frasché used the dates 14th–16th  century (Frasché 1976, 82). Although Praya Nakon Prah Ram mentioned finding  a Kalong vase with a thirteenth century inscription (Praya  1936, 80), some of the underglaze black-decorated as well as the  recently-identified green lead-glazed wares (Shaw 1989, 51) relate, in my  opinion, to Swatow wares dated to the 16th–17th  century.  Such iron-decorated pieces,  with overall "dot" motifs, include small jars similar in shape to this  one (Shaw 1989, 56, h. 6 cm).  Thus it  appears that Kalong kilns were active over some five centuries (at least) as  the source of glazed ceramics in the immediate region.  Judging from Dean Frasché’s purchase of this  jar in Indonesia, it appears  to have been one of the relatively small number to  have been exported (probably through Ayutthaya).

[Attribution is changed from country: "Vietnam" to "Thailand"; historical region: from "Annam" to  "Lanna"; date: from "14th–15th  century" to "16th–17th".  The following attributions were added:  Region: "Chiang Rai Province";  county/subdivision: "Wiang Papao  District"; Site: "Kalong kiln complex"; ware:  "Kalong"; and period: "Ayutthaya".]

Frasché, Dean. 1976. Southeast Asian Ceramics Ninth  through Seventeenth Centuries. New York: Asia Society.

Praya Nakon  Prah Ram. 1986. "Tai Pottery in Siam."  59–82 in Thai Pottery and Ceramics: collected articles from the Journal of  the Siam  Society, 1922–1980, edited by Dawn F. Rooney. Bangkok:  The Siam  Society.

Shaw, John C. 1989. Northern Thai  Ceramics. 2nd ed. Chiang Mai: Duangphorn Kemasingki.

Brown, Roxanna M. 1988. The Ceramics of South-East   Asia: Their Dating and Identification. 2nd ed. Singapore: Oxford University  Press.

5. (Louise Cort, 18 January 2008) In her paper for the 35th  annual meeting of the Toyo Toji Gakkai, 17–18  November 2007, Yajima Ritsuko  reconsidered the dates for the activity of the Kalong kilns based on comparison  of form, shaping, and decoration to Chinese ceramics, notably the popular kilns  in 15th century Jingdezhen with regard to iron-decorated wares and Ming-period  celadon with regard to green-glazed wares.

"It appears that the Si Satchanalai and Sukhothai kilns  in central Thailand made  great strides during the second half of the 14th century, and the impact of  Yuan period Longquan celadon and Jingdezhen  blue-and-white is evident. In contrast, the Kalong kilns, with their central  role among the kilns of northern Thailand, appear to have been  influenced by the forms of Ming ceramics anywhere from half a century to a  century later. During the second half of the 15th century, the Lanna kingdom sent envoys to China,  leading to closer connections between the two, and this may bear a relationship  to the start of the influx of Chinese ceramics into northern Thailand."

She concludes that the earliest possible activity was at  least 14th century (by comparison with kiln stacking procedures also used at  early Si Satchanalai kilns), while the latest may have been early 17th century  (based on the existence of white Kalong-ware pipe bowls, used for tobacco that  was introduced into Southeast Asia from the New World circa 1600). (Yajima 2007, 3–4)

Yajima Ritsuko.  2007. "Tai no tetsu-e—Karonyō  no katsudo nendai wo meguru  kosatsu [Thai iron-painted decoration—a thought about  the dating of activity at the Kalong kilns]." Paper read at Tōyō Tōji  Gakkai dai  35 kai taikai kenkyū happyō yōshi [Outline of research reports for the 35th annual  meeting of the Oriental Ceramics Society], 17–18 November, at Tokyo.

6. (Louise Cort, 24 October 2011) Pariwat Thammapreechakorn thinks this piece should be dated 16th century, not 16th-17th century.

Changed Date from 16th-17th century to 16th century.

7. (Najiba Choudhury, 10/28/2014) Transferred from the Provenance text field: "Collected by the donor in Djakarta, Indonesia, in 1958."