White Porcelain Jar with Mountains and Lightening Design in Underglaze Cobalt Blue and Iron

This is an early Joseon white porcelain ritual vessel painted in underglaze iron with a three-peaked mountain and a lightning-bolt design. It stands 27.8 cm high, with a mouth diameter of 9.5 cm and a base diameter of 11.8 cm. The mouth curves slightly inward, and the shoulder flares outward with a rounded fullness. The upper body swells and then gradually narrows towards the lower part, before flaring out slightly again at the foot. At the point where the mouth meets the shoulder, extending down to the upper body, arc-shaped handles are attached on either side, each fitted with a round ring; this suggests that the jar was modelled on a bronze ritual vessel used in ancestral rites. The decoration consists of a band of lightning-bolt design encircling the shoulder. The body is divided in two by a pair of underglaze-iron lines drawn around its middle, and above this line a three-peaked mountain is painted in underglaze cobalt blue at six points around the vessel. At the base a wide triangular band encircles the foot, and on the upper surface of each ring-fitted handle a chain pattern is drawn in underglaze iron. The glaze is a bluish-white porcelain glaze, applied thinly and evenly. This jar is a ritual vessel called a salloe (山罍), used in ceremonies at Jongmyo Shrine, and vessels of the same shape are illustrated in the Veritable Records of King Sejong, the Gukjo oryeui (Five Rites of State) and its Seorye (Prefatory Illustrations). As the only surviving example of a white porcelain salloe, it is a work produced between the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries that uses both underglaze cobalt blue and underglaze iron together.

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Where it is

Region

Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Designation

Treasure · 보물