White Porcelain Bowls with Inscriptions of "Cheon", "Ji", "Hyeon" and "Hwang"

Four early Joseon white porcelain bowls, each about 11.1 cm high, 21.1 cm across the mouth and 7.9 cm across the foot. The mouth flares outward in a confident form. They are undecorated, and the glaze is well fused and bright white. Inside each foot the glaze was scraped to incise one of the characters cheon, ji, hyeon and hwang (the first four characters of the Thousand Character Classic). Around Geunjeongjeon Hall of Gyeongbokgung Palace were four storehouses for the royal household's vessels, named with these characters, and the marks are thought to have indicated which store a bowl belonged to. The refined clay, even glaze, pure white colour, neat foot and fine sand supports suggest they were made at the state-run kilns at Gwangju, Gyeonggi, which produced fine porcelain for the royal household. As early Joseon white porcelain, they are an important source for tracing the lineage of white porcelain.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Designation

National Treasure · 국보