Jar with Bird and Flower Decoration (1700s): Art, History and Details

Jar with Bird and Flower Decoration (1700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Joseon blue-and-white porcelains were called “靑畫," meaning “painted in blue.” The blue here indicates cobalt pigment. In the 1700s, the royal court banned the importation of cobalt blue for its luxurious nature; thus, relatively few Joseon blue-and-white porcelain vessels were produced at that time. In that context, this modest-looking jar was considered to be a rare luxury.

Object facts

• Title: Jar with Bird and Flower Decoration
• Date: 1700s
• Culture: Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: stoneware with underglaze blue designs
• Dimensions: Outer diameter: 33 cm (13 in.); Overall: 43.4 cm (17 1/16 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1985.19

A detail from the museum

Cobalt blue, an expensive imported mineral from Persia (modern-day Iran), was officially banned for use in Korea during the 1700s.

Collection credit

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Bang, Byungsun. "The Technology of Porcelain Manufacturing in the late Joseon Dynasty [朝鮮後期 白磁의 製作技術 硏究]." Misul sahak yeongu (1997): 67–104
• Jeon, Seung-chang. "Painted Images of Late Joseon-Period Porcelains and Their Connections with Folk Painting [조선후기 백자장식의 민화요소 고찰]." Misulsa yeongu (2002): 255–278.
• Treasures from Korea: Arts and Culture of the Joseon Dynasty, 1392-1910. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2014.

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.