Bronze Lidded Bowl with Silver-inlaid Phoenix Design

A Goryeo lidded bowl (hap), 9.9 cm high and 18.3 cm across the mouth. It is made in the silver-inlay technique greatly fashionable in Goryeo — a pattern cut into the surface and silver wire hammered in — and since the lower body and lid are the same size it looks stable. The edges of the lid and of the top and bottom of the body are chamfered and rounded, a form seen often in Goryeo ironwork, porcelain, boxes and hap. A phoenix sits at the centre of the lid, surrounded by flowers and scrolls. The sloping outer edge is decorated with scrolls in silver inlay, and stylised scrolls run round the sides of the lid and body. It was made around the eleventh or twelfth century, when silver inlay was at its height, and its whole surface is filled with precise inlay. It is thought to have been an incense box used in a temple.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Designation

National Treasure · 국보