Floral-shaped Cup with Incised Chrysanthemum Design (1100s–1200s): Art, History and Details

Floral-shaped Cup with Incised Chrysanthemum 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:

Both everyday objects and ornaments such as this drinking cup were standard for Goryeo period (918–1392) burial goods. Furnishing tombs with an elaborate assemblage of objects was believed to honor and comfort the newly dead. While greenish celadon works were mainstream during the Goryeo period, bluish-white ceramic works made of white clay such as this one were produced from time to time.

Object facts

• Title: Floral-shaped Cup with Incised Chrysanthemum Design
• Date: 1100s–1200s
• Culture: Korea, Goryeo dynasty (918–1392)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: celadon
• Dimensions: Diameter of mouth: 7.1 cm (2 13/16 in.); Overall: 6.9 cm (2 11/16 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1918.427

A detail from the museum

Called kintsugi (literally meaning “gold joinery”) in Japanese, this method of repairing broken parts with glittering gold mixed with lacquer was extensively used for ceramic works in the Goryeo period, such as this cup.

Collection credit

Gift of John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Sparkles of Jade: Goryeo Celadon [高麗青磁 : ヒスイのきらめき]. Ōsaka: Ōsaka: Shiritsu Tōyō Tōji Bijutsukan, 2018.
• 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.