Bowl with Stamped Floral Decoration (1600s–1700s): Art, History and Details

Bowl with Stamped Floral Decoration (1600s–1700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This type of wide-mouthed bowl was used everyday in Korea, not exclusively for tea drinking. But when it was introduced to Japan around the early 16th century, its imperfect appearance evoking the aesthetics of wabi-sabi caused it to be repurposed as tea bowls in Japan. Possibly produced in one of the kilns established by the trading office (Waegwan) in Busan, southern Gyeongsang province, this type of bowl was sold to Japanese elite collectors.

Object facts

• Title: Bowl with Stamped Floral Decoration
• Date: 1600s–1700s
• Culture: Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: glazed ceramic
• Dimensions: Overall: 8.8 cm (3 7/16 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1988.1056

A detail from the museum

This type of humble tea bowl was highly praised among Japanese collectors for its imperfect beauty.

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. H. R. Cash, M.D.

Further reading listed by the museum

• Park, Kyung-ja and Park Hyeong-soon. “Evolution of the Buncheong Wares in the Early Joseon Period as the White Porcelain Takes over the Taxation Supply [조선 전기 공납용 백자제작에 따른 분청사기 양식변화].” Misul sahak (2010): 291–321.
• Lee, So-young, and Seung-chang Jeon. Korean Buncheong Ceramics from the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011.
• Buncheong Ware [분청사기]. Seoul: Ehwa Woman’s Universtiry Museum, 2019.

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.