Celadon Gourd-shaped Ewer with Lotus Design in Underglaze Copper

A mid-Goryeo celadon ewer, 33.2 cm high and 11.4 cm across the base. The gourd-shaped body is wrapped in lotus leaves. It has a stopper shaped like a flower bud, and the narrow neck is decorated with a boy clasping a lotus bud in both hands, and with lotus leaves. The handle is a lightly bent vine, with a frog sitting on top. The spout is a rolled lotus leaf. Adding red copper to Goryeo celadon as decoration was done already in the early twelfth century, but works decorated boldly in copper red are thought to appear only from the thirteenth. This ewer, with the edges and veins of its lotus leaves picked out in copper red, was excavated from the tomb of Choe Hang on Ganghwa, Gyeonggi, and is thought to date from the reign of King Gojong of Goryeo (r. 1213–1259). The outstanding colour of its copper red makes it a precious record in the history of Goryeo celadon.

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Where it is

Region

Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Designation

National Treasure · 국보