Underglaze Cobalt Blue White Porcelain Cloud and Dragon Design Bottle

This bottle has an everted rim and a body that grows fuller toward the base, typical of a late-Joseon bottle, and its form is more refined than other bottles of the same type from the period. The glaze and body colour is bright and translucent, showing a pure white texture with almost no impurities. Above all, what sets off this bottle's form is the cloud-and-dragon design painted on its surface in underglaze cobalt blue. The design consists of a dragon, clouds and a yeouiju, a magic wish-granting jewel, and it is especially notable that the dragon, rising amid small clouds, gazes forward rather than to the side. In Chinese underglaze cobalt blue porcelain of the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the dragon's head was traditionally shown in profile, changing to a frontal view only in the Qing dynasty; in Korean underglaze cobalt blue porcelain, by contrast, only the profile form as in the Yuan and Ming had previously been known, and no example of a frontal dragon head as in the Qing was thought to exist. This bottle is therefore judged highly valuable as the only known example to date depicting a dragon's head facing forward.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jongno-gu, Seoul

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산