Scroll Box with Dragon and Phoenix Design (1800s): Art, History and Details

Scroll Box with Dragon and Phoenix Design (1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This large rectangular box was designed for keeping a scroll or an important document. The mother-of-pearl inlaid lacquer rendering of a dragon and phoenix combines texture, color, and shape to produce a dazzling effect. The large and prominent designs of the Joseon-period inlaid lacquer, like on this box, replaced the fine detail and mosaic-like patterns popular in the Goryeo period (918–1392).

Object facts

• Title: Scroll Box with Dragon and Phoenix Design
• Date: 1800s
• Culture: Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
• Type: Lacquer
• Technique: lacquered wood inlaid with mother-of-pearl and twisted brass and copper wire
• Dimensions: Overall: 11.5 x 11.6 x 87 cm (4 1/2 x 4 9/16 x 34 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1990.15

A detail from the museum

This technique of using the inlays of iridescent mother-of-pearl and abalone shells has been practiced in Korea for over a thousand years.

Collection credit

Severance and Greta Millikin Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cunningham, Michael R. "Notable Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 3 (1991): 63–147.
• Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998.
• Cunningham Michael R., "A Korean Lacquerware Box", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 42 no. 06, Summer 2002.

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.