White Porcelain Jar with Plum and Bamboo Design in Underglaze Cobalt Blue

An early Joseon blue-and-white porcelain jar, 41 cm high, 15.7 cm across the mouth and 18.2 cm across the base. The mouth turns slightly inward; the upper body swells, and the lower narrows before flaring slightly at the foot. Two horizontal lines run round the very top of the mouth, with flowers and double circles alternating below them and another line below that. Decorative, lavish lotus is on the shoulder, and the same motif just above the foot. The main motif, plum and bamboo, covers the whole body; the crossing plum branches and the bamboo between them are rendered finely and superbly. Particularly striking is the outline-and-fill technique, in which the outline is drawn first and colour laid inside it. Beautiful in technique, colour and form, it shows the influence of Ming Chinese blue-and-white in composition and subject. It is thought to have been made at Gwangju, Gyeonggi, early in the mid-fifteenth century.

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Where it is

Region

Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Designation

National Treasure · 국보