Incense Box with Dragon Design (1900s): Art, History and Details

Incense Box with Dragon Design (1900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This incense box is colorfully decorated with the technique of oxhorn plating. The oxhorn was cut, soaked in water, boiled, and then pressed into thin translucent sheets. Since oxhorns are usually rather small, dozens of them were required to fully decorate even a small wooden object. The lid of this container is colorfully illustrated with the imagery of a dragon amid clouds deemed as an auspicious symbol, and its side presents flying dragon and phoenix following one after another.

Object facts

• Title: Incense Box with Dragon Design
• Date: 1900s
• Culture: Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
• Type: Miscellaneous
• Technique: Painted wood with flattened ox-horn inlay
• Dimensions: Diameter: 7.2 cm (2 13/16 in.); Overall: 3.6 cm (1 7/16 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1988.54

A detail from the museum

This box is made of small flattened pieces of oxhorn. Since oxhorn is rather small, possibly dozens of them were used to fully decorate even a small wooden object like this box.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• “The Year in Review for 1988.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 76, no. 2, 1989, pp. 30–75.
• Ye, Yong-hae. "Hwagakjang." Ye Yong-hae jeonjip. Seoul: Daewonsa, 1997.
• Jeong, Myeong-ho. "Hangukgongye gwahakgisulbaldalsa: hwagakgongyee daehan yeongureul jungsimeuro [韓國工藝 科學技術發達史: 華角工藝에 대한 연구를 중심으로]." Silhaksasang yeongu 15-16 (January 2000): 543–612.

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.