Celadon Ewer with Incised Dragon Design

This celadon ewer was made during the Goryeo period. It stands 21.1 cm tall, with a mouth diameter of 6.7 cm and a base diameter of 8.4 cm. It is known as a coiled-dragon ewer because it is carved with the image of a banyong, a dragon crouched on the ground just before rising into the sky. The mouth is wide in proportion to the vessel's size, and the body and handle together form a bottle-shaped ewer of stable, well-balanced form. The spout and body are divided into three sections by two bands of a lightning-scroll pattern. The coiled-dragon design appears in the two upper sections of the body, with one dragon carved on the front and one on the back of each, four dragons in all; one has an elongated, triangular face and the other a squarish face, suggesting that a male and female pair are represented. With its wide mouth, short thick neck, bottle-shaped body, low splayed foot, the angled bend at the top of the handle, and the vigorously flaring mouth, the ewer appears to have been modelled on a metal vessel. The finely rendered lightning-scroll and coiled-dragon designs show it to be an outstanding celadon piece made in the first half of the twelfth century. Ewers of this form are otherwise unknown, and this piece is thought to have been produced at a kiln in Gangjin, in South Jeolla Province.

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Where it is

Region

Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Designation

Treasure · 보물