Bowl with Carved Design (1000s–1100s): Art, History and Details

Bowl with Carved Design (1000s–1100s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

As early as the seventh century, the practice of drinking tea and wine became an important part of elite leisure culture in Korea. A wide bowl like this example was especially suitable for drinking powdered tea shaved from a compressed tea cake, the most commonly enjoyed type during the Goryeo period.

Object facts

• Title: Bowl with Carved Design
• Date: 1000s–1100s
• Culture: Korea, Goryeo dynasty (918–1392)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: pottery
• Dimensions: Diameter of mouth: 10.6 cm (4 3/16 in.); Overall: 4 cm (1 9/16 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1918.428

A detail from the museum

This white bowl is highly likely to have served as a tea bowl.

Collection credit

Gift of John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Goryeo Dynasty: Korea's Age of Enlightenment, 918-1392. San Francisco: Asian Art Museum, 2003.
• Jang, Nam-won. "The Tea and Celadons during the Goryeo Dynasty : Considering the Celadon Tea Utensils [고려시대 茶文化와 靑瓷]." Misulsa nondan (2007): 129-162.
• Lee, Jongmin. “The Genealogy and Characteristics of Imported Chinese White Porcelain in the Mid-Goryeo Period [고려 중기 수입 중국백자의 계통과 성격].” Misulsa yeongu (2011): 137-160.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.