Buncheong Lidded Bowl with Inlaid Peony Design

This lidded bowl (banhap) is a piece of buncheong ware, 16 cm in height and 16.8 cm in body diameter. Peony petals were inlaid in white slip as flat planes into the grey clay body, and the whole surface was then evenly coated with a pale bluish, translucent greyish-white glaze. On the sloping sides of the body and the lid, peony flowers and leaves are inlaid using the neorae sangam technique, an inlay method that fills in flat planes rather than fine lines, and around the rim of the lid delicate grass patterns are inlaid in white. Between the peony motifs, large stems are carved with dynamic movement. A band of grass-and-flower pattern encircles the mouth of the bowl, and below it two incised lines frame an inlaid peony design; the mouth of the lid is likewise encircled with a grass-and-flower band, with peonies set within two lines, and above, a branch extends upward to a single peony blossom inlaid on the top surface. The neorae sangam technique used extensively on this piece was a method favoured in buncheong ware generally. As a lidded bowl it is a representative example of the full, rounded forms typical of early Joseon vessels, and its foot, which flares outward at the base, gives the whole rounded shape good proportion and stability. Buncheong kilns known to have used the neorae sangam technique include the Geumgok kiln on Mudeungsan Mountain in Gwangsan-gun, South Jeolla Province, and fragments showing a neorae sangam technique similar to that on this bowl were excavated in 1963 at the Chunghyo-dong kiln site in Dong-gu, Gwangju.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Seongbuk-gu, Seoul

Designation

Treasure · 보물