Gourd-Shaped Bottle (1100s): Art, History and Details

Gourd-Shaped Bottle (1100s) 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 seventh century, the practice of drinking tea and wine became an important part of elite culture in Korea. Elites of the Goryeo period commissioned a variety of types of ceramic and metal utensils including this bronze bottle, not only to make their drinking experience more exciting, but also to show their appreciation of nature.

Object facts

• Title: Gourd-Shaped Bottle
• Date: 1100s
• Culture: Korea, Goryeo dynasty (918–1392)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Outer diameter: 12 cm (4 3/4 in.); Overall: 33.5 cm (13 3/16 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1992.113

A detail from the museum

This gourd-shaped bottle may have been used to serve wine.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1992.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 2 (February 1993): 38–79.
• Goryeo Dynasty: Korea's Age of Enlightenment, 918-1392. San Francisco: Asian Art Museum, 2003.
• Choi, Eung-chon. “Metal Arts in the Late Goryeo Period [고려후기의 금속공예].” Kangjwa misulsa (2004): 125–156.

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.