Flask with Inlaid Lotus Design (1200s–1300s): Art, History and Details

Flask with Inlaid Lotus Design (1200s–1300s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Toward the late 1300s, the overall quality of techniques involved in making celadon works sharply deteriorated. In contrast to translucent greenish blue celadon works of the 1100s, this flask, possibly dated to the late 1300s, has brownish green glaze. And its inlaid design also shows a clear sign of decline in craftsmanship. Nevertheless, less attention to techniques gave way to a freer style pottery called buncheong in the succeeding centuries.

Object facts

• Title: Flask with Inlaid Lotus Design
• Date: 1200s–1300s
• Culture: Korea, Goryeo dynasty (918–1392)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: stoneware, celadon with inlaid decoration
• Dimensions: Overall: 30.7 cm (12 1/16 in.); Outer diameter: 20.2 cm (7 15/16 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1975.99

A detail from the museum

The shape of this bottle can be traced all the way back to an ancient Persian pilgrim’s flask.

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. Lewis B. Williams

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1975.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 63, no. 2 (February 1976): 31–71.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
• Goryeo Dynasty: Korea's Age of Enlightenment, 918-1392. San Francisco: Asian Art Museum, 2003.

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.