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Lot Essay
A rare example of porcelain 白瓷 from early in the Joseon dynasty 朝鮮時代 (1392–1910), this small jar features decoration painted in underglaze cobalt blue and representing a blossoming plum branch on one face and a clump of bamboo on the other. A vessel type associated with the palace, this elegantly shaped jar was likely made at the royal kilns at Bunwon-ri 分院里窯.
A unique Korean interpretation of the shape, this small jar has broad, virtually flat shoulders and sloping sides that gently narrow as they descend; an elegantly rolled lip encircles the jar’s wide mouth. This jar’s distinctive shape, popular in the early Joseon period, points to its fifteenth- or sixteenth-century date of manufacture. A jar of similar size and shape embellished with a blossoming plum branch painted under the glaze is in the collection of the National Museum of Korea, Seoul 서울國立中央博物館 (Dongwon 888)[1].
Because it blooms in February, the Chinese plum 梅花 (Prunus mume) is associated with winter and regarded as a symbol of strength in the face of adversity. In addition, its blossoms symbolize feminine beauty, and its old, weathered trunk, the humble scholar. As on this jar, images of a blossoming plum tree are often paired with bamboo 竹, which retains its green leaves year ‘round and thus also symbolizes strength in the face of difficulty. In other depictions, plum and bamboo and shown together with a pine tree 松, the group traditionally termed the “Three Friends of Winter”, or Suihan Sanyou 歲寒三友. Together, the three friends symbolize steadfastness, perseverance, and resilience; to Chinese and Koreans alike, the Three Friends and the virtues they symbolize represent the ideal of the Confucian scholar-gentleman, or junzi 君子. A fifteenth- to sixteenth-century jar of identical shape but larger size in the museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka 大阪市立東洋陶磁美術館, sports decoration of the Three Friends of Winter painted in underglaze cobalt blue (00263)[2].
With its strong, fully self-assured brushwork, the vibrant painting on this jar reveals both the hand of a master and the decided influence of Korean court painting. In fact, traditional records indicate that the royal court sometimes ordered painters from the Dohwaseo圖畵署, or Royal Academy of Painting, to go to the royal kilns to paint decoration on porcelains destined for the palace. While at the kilns, those painters doubtless also produced pattern books which porcelain decorators regularly employed at the kilns subsequently took as models for the motifs they painted. The association of court painters with the kilns already at the beginning of the Joseon porcelain tradition ensured a close link between porcelain decoration and paintings on paper and silk throughout the dynasty.
Another characteristic feature of many Joseon porcelains, as witnessed by this beautiful jar, is the presentation of the main decorative motif on an otherwise unembellished white ground without decorative borders top and bottom, the overall appearance thus recalling a painting on paper or silk. Although most blue-and-white porcelains 青花瓷 from Ming 明朝 (1368–1644) and Qing 清朝 (1644–1912) China display borders, often of stylized lotus petals and often very emphatic, Korean taste, by contrast, shows a preference for a quieter, less bold, less dramatic approach to porcelain decoration.
The shade of cobalt blue varies widely on Korean blue-and-white wares, ranging from a pale, almost silvery blue to a dark, vibrant, midnight blue and every shade between. Because of iron impurities in the cobalt, the painting on this jar appears dark and grayish brown; even so, tiny dots in localized areas show a typical light blue shade of cobalt. Similar tiny dots also appear in the bamboo decoration painted on a flat bottle, sometimes called a pilgrim flask, with bamboo decoration in the National Museum of Korea, Seoul (Dongwon 248)[3]. Those tiny dots might be accidental splashes of purer cobalt, or they might be extremely small, areas of a purer blue cobalt within the darker matrix; alternatively, they might be small dots of a purer blue cobalt intentionally applied before the principal decorative motif was painted, the dots to serve as guides to be followed in organizing and composing the decorative motif
This jar’s narrow-walled footring is well and precisely cut, and its flat base is fully glazed. Grains of sand from the kiln adhere to the center of the base, a feature often encountered on the bases of early Joseon porcelains. The glazed base, the shape and cut of the footring, and the adhering grains of sand all correspond to those on the previously mentioned small jar with underglaze decoration of a blossoming plum branch in the National Museum of Korea (Bonwon 888)[4].
When the Joseon dynasty supplanted Goryeo 高麗時代 (918–1392) in 1392, the new government took that of Ming China as its model; as a result, the royal court pushed Buddhism aside and espoused Neo-Confucianism 宋明理學 as the state philosophy, just as it also left behind the previous dynasty’s taste for celadon wares 青瓷and espoused porcelain as the ceramic ware most preferred for palace use. As Korean potters had located deposits of the two clays necessary for producing porcelain—kaolin高嶺土 and petuntse 白墩子—and had mastered the techniques of porcelain manufacture by the early to mid-Goryeo period, early Joseon potters were prepared to meet the challenge of producing porcelain for the royal palaces, both monochrome white ware and blue-and-white ware. The deposits of Korea’s finest porcelain clays are in Gwangju 京畿道廣州市, just twenty miles (35 km) to the southeast of Seoul, the Joseon capital, so the kilns that produced the finest porcelain wares developed there. Among those kilns were those at Bunwon-ri 分院里, near Gwangju, which were established in the mid-1460s to produce white wares for the royal court and which produced the finest Joseon porcelain. With the kilns conveniently located near the capital, the transport of finished porcelains to the palace was accomplished with relative ease.
Made primarily for the palace and for the very wealthy, early Joseon porcelains, like the present jar, were produced in small numbers. Very few of those early Joseon porcelains survive today due to scant early interest in collecting Joseon porcelains.
In excellent condition, this beautiful jar belongs to a small group of surviving early Joseon porcelains; its shape and style of decoration conform perfectly to those of famous examples in Korean and Japanese collections. Though strongly influenced by Chinese porcelains from the Ming dynasty, this jar differs from its Chinese models, demonstrating the beginning of a distinct Korean style in shaping and decorating blue-and-white porcelain. This jar is thus exceptionally important not only for its rarity and beauty but especially for the insight it conveys into the development of a clearly defined Korean taste in porcelain wares.
Robert D. Mowry
Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art Emeritus,
Harvard Art Museums, and
Senior Consultant, Christie’s
[1] See: https://www.museum.go.kr/site/eng/relic/search/view?relicId=9051
[2] See: National Museum of Korea, ed. [韓國國立中央博物館編輯], In Blue and White: Porcelain of the Joseon Dynasty (Seoul: National Museum of Korea), 2015, p. 100, no. 62; also see: https://apisites.jmapps.ne.jp/mocoor/en/collection/1156?kwd_and_or=and&f50=1&list_type=LLC&title_query=yes&page=4&sort_type=asc&sort_field=&list_count=10
[3] See: https://www.museum.go.kr/site/eng/relic/search/view?relicId=8827
[4] See: https://www.museum.go.kr/site/eng/relic/search/view?relicId=9051
A unique Korean interpretation of the shape, this small jar has broad, virtually flat shoulders and sloping sides that gently narrow as they descend; an elegantly rolled lip encircles the jar’s wide mouth. This jar’s distinctive shape, popular in the early Joseon period, points to its fifteenth- or sixteenth-century date of manufacture. A jar of similar size and shape embellished with a blossoming plum branch painted under the glaze is in the collection of the National Museum of Korea, Seoul 서울國立中央博物館 (Dongwon 888)[1].
Because it blooms in February, the Chinese plum 梅花 (Prunus mume) is associated with winter and regarded as a symbol of strength in the face of adversity. In addition, its blossoms symbolize feminine beauty, and its old, weathered trunk, the humble scholar. As on this jar, images of a blossoming plum tree are often paired with bamboo 竹, which retains its green leaves year ‘round and thus also symbolizes strength in the face of difficulty. In other depictions, plum and bamboo and shown together with a pine tree 松, the group traditionally termed the “Three Friends of Winter”, or Suihan Sanyou 歲寒三友. Together, the three friends symbolize steadfastness, perseverance, and resilience; to Chinese and Koreans alike, the Three Friends and the virtues they symbolize represent the ideal of the Confucian scholar-gentleman, or junzi 君子. A fifteenth- to sixteenth-century jar of identical shape but larger size in the museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka 大阪市立東洋陶磁美術館, sports decoration of the Three Friends of Winter painted in underglaze cobalt blue (00263)[2].
With its strong, fully self-assured brushwork, the vibrant painting on this jar reveals both the hand of a master and the decided influence of Korean court painting. In fact, traditional records indicate that the royal court sometimes ordered painters from the Dohwaseo圖畵署, or Royal Academy of Painting, to go to the royal kilns to paint decoration on porcelains destined for the palace. While at the kilns, those painters doubtless also produced pattern books which porcelain decorators regularly employed at the kilns subsequently took as models for the motifs they painted. The association of court painters with the kilns already at the beginning of the Joseon porcelain tradition ensured a close link between porcelain decoration and paintings on paper and silk throughout the dynasty.
Another characteristic feature of many Joseon porcelains, as witnessed by this beautiful jar, is the presentation of the main decorative motif on an otherwise unembellished white ground without decorative borders top and bottom, the overall appearance thus recalling a painting on paper or silk. Although most blue-and-white porcelains 青花瓷 from Ming 明朝 (1368–1644) and Qing 清朝 (1644–1912) China display borders, often of stylized lotus petals and often very emphatic, Korean taste, by contrast, shows a preference for a quieter, less bold, less dramatic approach to porcelain decoration.
The shade of cobalt blue varies widely on Korean blue-and-white wares, ranging from a pale, almost silvery blue to a dark, vibrant, midnight blue and every shade between. Because of iron impurities in the cobalt, the painting on this jar appears dark and grayish brown; even so, tiny dots in localized areas show a typical light blue shade of cobalt. Similar tiny dots also appear in the bamboo decoration painted on a flat bottle, sometimes called a pilgrim flask, with bamboo decoration in the National Museum of Korea, Seoul (Dongwon 248)[3]. Those tiny dots might be accidental splashes of purer cobalt, or they might be extremely small, areas of a purer blue cobalt within the darker matrix; alternatively, they might be small dots of a purer blue cobalt intentionally applied before the principal decorative motif was painted, the dots to serve as guides to be followed in organizing and composing the decorative motif
This jar’s narrow-walled footring is well and precisely cut, and its flat base is fully glazed. Grains of sand from the kiln adhere to the center of the base, a feature often encountered on the bases of early Joseon porcelains. The glazed base, the shape and cut of the footring, and the adhering grains of sand all correspond to those on the previously mentioned small jar with underglaze decoration of a blossoming plum branch in the National Museum of Korea (Bonwon 888)[4].
When the Joseon dynasty supplanted Goryeo 高麗時代 (918–1392) in 1392, the new government took that of Ming China as its model; as a result, the royal court pushed Buddhism aside and espoused Neo-Confucianism 宋明理學 as the state philosophy, just as it also left behind the previous dynasty’s taste for celadon wares 青瓷and espoused porcelain as the ceramic ware most preferred for palace use. As Korean potters had located deposits of the two clays necessary for producing porcelain—kaolin高嶺土 and petuntse 白墩子—and had mastered the techniques of porcelain manufacture by the early to mid-Goryeo period, early Joseon potters were prepared to meet the challenge of producing porcelain for the royal palaces, both monochrome white ware and blue-and-white ware. The deposits of Korea’s finest porcelain clays are in Gwangju 京畿道廣州市, just twenty miles (35 km) to the southeast of Seoul, the Joseon capital, so the kilns that produced the finest porcelain wares developed there. Among those kilns were those at Bunwon-ri 分院里, near Gwangju, which were established in the mid-1460s to produce white wares for the royal court and which produced the finest Joseon porcelain. With the kilns conveniently located near the capital, the transport of finished porcelains to the palace was accomplished with relative ease.
Made primarily for the palace and for the very wealthy, early Joseon porcelains, like the present jar, were produced in small numbers. Very few of those early Joseon porcelains survive today due to scant early interest in collecting Joseon porcelains.
In excellent condition, this beautiful jar belongs to a small group of surviving early Joseon porcelains; its shape and style of decoration conform perfectly to those of famous examples in Korean and Japanese collections. Though strongly influenced by Chinese porcelains from the Ming dynasty, this jar differs from its Chinese models, demonstrating the beginning of a distinct Korean style in shaping and decorating blue-and-white porcelain. This jar is thus exceptionally important not only for its rarity and beauty but especially for the insight it conveys into the development of a clearly defined Korean taste in porcelain wares.
Robert D. Mowry
Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art Emeritus,
Harvard Art Museums, and
Senior Consultant, Christie’s
[1] See: https://www.museum.go.kr/site/eng/relic/search/view?relicId=9051
[2] See: National Museum of Korea, ed. [韓國國立中央博物館編輯], In Blue and White: Porcelain of the Joseon Dynasty (Seoul: National Museum of Korea), 2015, p. 100, no. 62; also see: https://apisites.jmapps.ne.jp/mocoor/en/collection/1156?kwd_and_or=and&f50=1&list_type=LLC&title_query=yes&page=4&sort_type=asc&sort_field=&list_count=10
[3] See: https://www.museum.go.kr/site/eng/relic/search/view?relicId=8827
[4] See: https://www.museum.go.kr/site/eng/relic/search/view?relicId=9051