Ring (918–1392): Art, History and Details

Ring (918–1392) 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 ring were standard burial goods for the period. Furnishing tombs with an elaborate assemblage of objects was believed to honor and comfort the newly dead. Generally, Goryeo tombs were left untouched until the late 19th century. During the colonial period (1910–45), however, Japanese archaeologists aggressively excavated the tombs located in Kaeseong, the former capital of the Goryeo period. It's highly possible this bronze ring came from one of those excavated tomb sites.

Object facts

• Title: Ring
• Date: 918–1392
• Culture: Korea, Goryeo dynasty (918–1392)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze gilt
• Dimensions: Outer diameter: 1.9 cm (3/4 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1917.1042

A detail from the museum

The Japanese antique dealer Yamanaka & Company, which opened its branches in New York (1895) and Boston (1899), sold small Korean archaeological materials such as this bronze ring to American collectors in the early 20th century.

Collection credit

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

Further reading listed by the museum

• Goryeo Dynasty: Korea's Age of Enlightenment, 918-1392. San Francisco: Asian Art Museum, 2003.
• Kim, Moon-ja. "A Study on the Ornaments in Goryeo Dynasty [고려시대장신구에대한연구]." Journal of Korean Traditional Costume 15, vol. 3 (December 2012).
• Goryeo: The Glory of Korea [대고려, 그 찬란한 도전]. Seoul: National Museum of Korea, 2018.

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.