Tray for Sewing Tools with Mother-of-Pearl Inlay (1800s): Art, History and Details

Tray for Sewing Tools with Mother-of-Pearl Inlay (1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This mother-of-pearl lacquer tray is decorated with various scenes of animals interacting with their natural surroundings. Its flat circular base depicts a pond where a leaping carp and a small school of fish swim below the boughs of a cherry tree. The tray’s exterior wall is densely decorated with various animals paired with plants symbolizing wishful thoughts of longevity, marital happiness, and prosperity.

Object facts

• Title: Tray for Sewing Tools with Mother-of-Pearl Inlay
• Date: 1800s
• Culture: Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
• Type: Lacquer
• Technique: lacquer with mother-of-pearl inlay
• Dimensions: Diameter: 33.1 cm (13 1/16 in.); Overall: 9.6 cm (3 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1987.42

A detail from the museum

Many thin layers of lacquer were applied to the tray's leather core. The design was cut into the dry lacquer and then the mother-of-pearl was inserted.

Collection credit

Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1987.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 2 (February 1988): 30–71.
• Hwang, Ji-hyeon and Sadamu Kawada. Korean Lacquerware Inlaid with Mother-of-Pearl: the Everlasting Beauty. Seoul: National Museum of Korea: 2010.
• Korean Lacquer Art: Aesthetic Perfection, Munich: Hirmer Publishers, 2013.

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.