Vase with Bird and Flower Design (late 1800s–early 1900s): Art, History and Details

Vase with Bird and Flower Design (late 1800s–early 1900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This vase with broad shoulders and a tall neck represents a typical style of 19th-century blue-and-white porcelain. Unlike earlier examples decorated mainly with literati themes that evoke neo-Confucian moral values—plum blossoms (purity), orchids (grace), bamboo (integrity), and chrysanthemums (loftiness)—porcelain works of the 1800s feature fully bloomed peonies and a pair of playful birds, symbols of wealth and familial harmony.

Object facts

• Title: Vase with Bird and Flower Design
• Date: late 1800s–early 1900s
• Culture: Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: porcelain with underglaze blue
• Dimensions: Outer diameter: 34.3 cm (13 1/2 in.); Overall: 49.4 cm (19 7/16 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1989.117

A detail from the museum

Nineteenth-century Korean blue-and-white porcelains tend to feature broad shoulders and a tall neck.

Collection credit

Gift of Yamanaka Shoji in memory of Jiro Yamanaka

Further reading listed by the museum

• Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review: Selections 1989.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 2 (February 1990): 38–78.
• Choi, Kyung-hwa, “Stylistic Features of 19th-Century Blue and White Ware as Seen in Dated Materials [편년자료를 통하여 본 19세기 청화백자의 양식적 특징].” Misulsahak yeongu (1996): 77-107.
• 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.

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.