Box and Cover with Inlaid Phoenix Design (918–1392): Art, History and Details

Box and Cover with Inlaid Phoenix Design (918–1392) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Celadons, spoons, seals, and bronze mirrors were the most common burial objects in tombs during the Goryeo period (918–1392). Once used to contain colored powder, rouge, and eyebrow gel for makeup, this small container was one of the standard goods that furnished elites' tombs. Both women and men used the grain powder of rice or millet for whitening their skin, safflower extract for rouge, and plant ash or soot for eyebrow gel. Yet, natural-looking makeup seems to have been the most favorable one in Korea according to the travelogue by Xu Jing (1091–1153), the Chinese diplomat who visited Korea in 1123.

Object facts

• Title: Box and Cover with Inlaid Phoenix Design
• Date: 918–1392
• Culture: Korea, Goryeo dynasty (918–1392)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: earthenware
• Dimensions: Diameter: 19.4 cm (7 5/8 in.); Overall: 12.7 cm (5 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1916.1186

A detail from the museum

This lidded ceramic container was used to store either incense or cosmetics.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Goryeo Dynasty: Korea's Age of Enlightenment, 918-1392. San Francisco: Asian Art Museum, 2003.
• Lee, Young-hee. "The Study on Techniques and their Interrelations among Craft Arts of the Goryeo Dynasty [고려시대 공예기법 연구 상호관련성을 중심으로]." Misulsa hakbo 22 (2004): 133-170.
• A Chinese traveler in medieval Korea : Xu Jing's illustrated account of the Xuanhe embassy to Koryo. Translated by Sem Vermeersch. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2016.

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.