Celadon Tube-shaped Bottle with Willow Design in Underglaze Iron

A Goryeo celadon bottle painted in iron, 31.6 cm high: a long tube of a bottle with a single willow painted in red clay on front and back, a simple piece. Its form is plain and almost entirely straight-lined, but the neatly chamfered shoulder and the flaring mouth relieve the monotony. Apart from the willows on the two sides it has no particular ornament, and the terse, boldly simplified willows show a refined and graceful sensibility. In the firing, the glaze happened to turn a pale blue at the foot of the willow on one side and behind the willow on the other, adding a painterly effect, like a pond. A few Goryeo iron-painted celadon bottles of this unusual long cylindrical shape survive, and this is one of them; the Government-General Museum of Joseon bought it from a Japanese collector in 1931. Its fitting proportions, the chamfered shoulder, the natural flow of the line painted on the body and its originality make it a remarkable work.

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Where it is

Region

Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Designation

National Treasure · 국보