Wine Ewer with Incised Bamboo Shoot Design (1100s): Art, History and Details

Wine Ewer with Incised Bamboo Shoot Design (1100s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Natural motifs inspired the shape of celadon vessels as well as their inlaid designs in the Goryeo period. This wine ewer is shaped like a bamboo shoot, but it also resembles a lotus bud. Even though the spout was repaired, the ewer is a masterpiece of Goryeo period celadon. Ewers of the same shape are now housed at the National Museum of Korea and the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka.

Object facts

• Title: Wine Ewer with Incised Bamboo Shoot Design
• Date: 1100s
• Culture: Korea, Goryeo dynasty (918–1392)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: celadon ware with incised decoration
• Dimensions: Diameter: 14.7 cm (5 13/16 in.); Overall: 18.2 cm (7 3/16 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1928.179

A detail from the museum

This type of ewer is supposed to have a tight-fitting lid, which is currently missing.

Collection credit

Gift of John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• K. P. S. “Recent Additions to the Collection of Korean Pottery.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 15, no. 9 (November 1928): 182–187.
• Goryeo Dynasty: Korea's Age of Enlightenment, 918-1392. San Francisco: Asian Art Museum, 2003.
• Jang, Nam-won. "The Tea and Celadons during the Goryeo Dynasty : Considering the Celadon Tea Utensils [고려시대 茶文化와 靑瓷]." Misulsa nondan (2007): 129-162.

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.