Celadon Flower-shaped Dish with Lotus Pond and Fish Design in Relief

This is a Goryeo-period celadon dish measuring 9.3 cm in height, 16.1 cm across the mouth and 6.1 cm across the base. It is a broad, flat dish that spreads out almost horizontally near the foot before flaring obliquely upward again; the interior of the base is flat and the walls are thin, giving it the sleek look of a bronze dish. Six small notches are cut around the rim, giving the shape of a six-petalled flower. This is thought to be a later, simplified version of the flower-shaped dishes characteristic of the early Goryeo period. The inside of the vessel is carved with exquisitely fine relief designs of the highest quality, as though a pattern had been woven into silk. On the flat base are three fish swimming in water, and on the sides are relief scenes of a lotus pond, with lotus flowers, reeds and wild ducks, while the exterior is left completely plain. These designs look as if they had been carved one by one by hand, and are at once intricate and dense yet soft and elegant. A translucent glaze is applied evenly and subtly over the whole surface of the dish. This celadon dish is unique in combining this particular shape, these designs and this glaze colour all at once.

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Where it is

Region

Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Designation

Treasure · 보물