PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION 
A RARE IRON SLIP-COATED, INLAID WHITE SLIP-DECORATED AND CELADON-GLAZED MAEBYONG

細節
A RARE IRON SLIP-COATED, INLAID WHITE SLIP-DECORATED AND CELADON-GLAZED MAEBYONG
koryo dynasty (mid 12th century)

Of evenly proportioned maebyong form with high, rounded shoulders, tapered body, flat foot with shallow recessed base, short neck and cup-form mouth with slightly extended rim, decorated on opposite shoulders with two herb sprays, the outlines of the leaves and pencil-thin stems incised and inlaid with white slip and the broad leaves scraped through the iron coating and then applied with white slip, the surface covered by a celadon glaze which pools in looped and vertical rivulets in several areas of the body and which is concentrated in one section below the neck and in several areas above the foot in mist-like patches, the interior of the mouth also coated with iron slip and celadon glaze and the foot bearing traces of iron coating and celadon glaze, the recessed base unglazed, slight kiln grit adhesion on the foot, no spur marks, visible craquelure in the celadon glaze covering the leaves decorated in white slip, small places in the iron coating revealing the clay body of the vessel colored rust from the firing--10¼in. (26.0cm.) high

拍品專文

PUBLISHED
Chosen jodai, Korai (Ancient Korea, Koryo), Sekai toji zenshu (Collection of world's ceramics), ed. Koyama Fujio, vol. 13 (Tokyo: Zauho and Kawade shobo, 1961), no. 133

Nezu Museum of Art, ed., Chosen no meito--Senshi kara Richo made (Masterpieces of Korean Ceramics--from the Prehistoric period to the Choson dynasty) (Tokyo: Nezu Art Museum, November, 1966), no. 56

Byung-chang Rhee, Masterpieces of Korean Art--Koryo Ceramics (Tokyo: privately published, 1978), no. 310

This ware is extremely rare--only a handful are known to survive. The entire body of the vase was coated with an iron pigment. Next, the leaf design was scraped away and the thin outlines and stem incised. Then the design was inlaid with white slip. The vase was then covered with a celadon glaze and fired. Seen through this glaze, the black ground is softened and takes on a slightly green tonality. Although it is the slip and not the glaze that appears black, this ware is known as black ware and is characteristic of the Koryo dynasty.

The two clusters of white ninjin (herb) leaves, back and front, seem to float across the swelling shoulders of this vase, making a pleasing color contrast. The slip is brushed on in a casual and free manner quite unlike the more precise execution of inlaid designs on Koryo-dynasty green celadons. The rich yet subtle color tonalities and the impressive form of this vase are also outstanding.

Another vase with nearly identical design that must be the work of the same potter is in the collection of the National Museum of Korea, Seoul (Korai [Koryo], Sekai toji zenshu [Collection of world's ceramics], ed. Zauho Press, vol. 18 [Tokyo: Shogakukan, 1978], pl. 111; Choi Soon-woo, Chungja [Celadon], Hanguk mi [Korean beauty], vol. 4 [Seoul: Joong-ang Ilbosa, 1981], pl. 177). A group of five similar black ware vases with white slip design is illustrated by Koyama Fujio in his essay on Koryo black wares in Chosen kodai, Korai, loc. cit., p. 257.