Jar with Loop Handle (200s–300s CE): Art, History and Details

Jar with Loop Handle (200s–300s CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Closed kilns built on hillsides became widely used for producing this type of pottery vessel in Korea during the Three Kingdoms period. Both its gray color and shimmering glaze are the result of the reduction of oxygen in the closed kiln chamber. The pounding technique (tanal in Korean) on the surface strengthened the clay body, leaving behind a geometric pattern.

Object facts

• Title: Jar with Loop Handle
• Date: 200s–300s CE
• Culture: Korea, Baekje kingdom (18 BCE–660 CE)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: earthenware
• Dimensions: Overall: 33.8 cm (13 5/16 in.); Outer diameter: 27.4 cm (10 13/16 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1997.188

A detail from the museum

The pounding technique (tanal in Korean) on the surface strengthened the clay body.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Pottery from Ancient Korea: Clay Art for Life and Death [한국고대의토기 : 흙・예술・삶과 죽음]. Seoul: National Museum of Korea, 1997.
• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Major European Porcelain Crucifix, Pre-Columbian Figure, and Other Works Added to CMA Collection,” December 3, 1997, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Bang, Yu-ri. "A Study on manufacturing skills of the Paekche Pottery: Centered on the Paekche Pottery excavated from the Seolbong Fortress in Icheon [백제토기 제작 기법 연구: 이천 설봉산성 출토품을 중심으로]." Journal of Korean Cultural History 16 (December 2001): 7-28.

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.