Celadon Peach-shaped Water Dropper

This is a type of figural celadon (sanghyeong cheongja) shaped like a peach, made in the Goryeo period; it measures 8.6 cm in height and 9.6 by 7.1 cm across. It looks like a perfectly ripe peach: a leafy peach-tree branch is attached to the back of the body, while at the front two leaves are joined into a rounded shape to form foliage. A long groove is cut down the centre of the back of the body, vividly capturing the texture of a peach, and the veins of the leaves are rendered in fine incised lines. With a natural and realistic technique, the simple form of the peach is reproduced exactly as in life, while the leaves and branch are used with great inventiveness so that the piece can serve as a water dropper. The glaze is a beautiful jade-green containing many minute bubbles, applied thinly or thickly following the natural contours of the peach shape, which gives it an even more lifelike feel. It is the only peach-shaped celadon water dropper surviving from the Goryeo period, and it is all the more interesting for being not only excellent in form but also, in effect, the forerunner of the white porcelain figural water droppers that flourished in the late Joseon period.

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Where it is

Region

Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Designation

Treasure · 보물