Bowl with Incised Parrot Design (1100s–1200s): Art, History and Details

Bowl with Incised Parrot Design (1100s–1200s) 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 600s, 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. The image of flying parrots inscribed on the inner wall of this tea bowl may have made the moment of drinking tea much enjoyable.

Object facts

• Title: Bowl with Incised Parrot Design
• Date: 1100s–1200s
• Culture: Korea, Goryeo dynasty (918–1392)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: glazed porcelain
• Dimensions: Overall: 8.6 cm (3 3/8 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1924.136

A detail from the museum

On the base of this tea bowl, three small spur marks made of bits of clay remain visible, indicating an individual protective casing of fire clay (saggar).

Collection credit

Educational Purchase Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Pak, Youngsook, and Roderick Whitfield. Earthenware and Celadon. London: Laurence King, 2003.
• 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.

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.