Lot 33
33
A PUNCH'ONG BOTTLE

Details
A PUNCH'ONG BOTTLE
CHOSON DYNASTY (15TH CENTURY)

The large flask of flattened disc form set on a high, splayed foot with cylindrical neck ending in a wide mouth with rolled lip, incised on one flat side with a fish and water plants within a double-circle border and on the other flat side with a floret surrounded by leaves, the background of which rendered in sgraffito technique, the rounded sides decorated in incised and sgraffito techniques with square lotus panel, on one shoulders, and with a square panel of leaves, on the other shoulder, above rectangular panels of lappets, smaller lappet panels bordering the neck, covered overall by a thin celadon-tinged glaze with dense crackle and high sheen--8 1/2 in. (21.6 cm.) high, 7 1/8 in. (18.1 cm.) diameter, glaze discoloration on one side, neck restored

Lot Essay

For other Punch'ong flasks decorated with fish and lappet panels see Mishima henko ten [Exhibition of Punch'ong Ware of Yi-Dynasty Korea] (Osaka: Museum of Oriental Ceramics, 1984); Byung-chang Rhee, ed., Masterpieces of Korean Art--Yi Ceramics (Tokyo, 1978), pl.58, no. 61; Hwang Su-Young, The Masterpieces of Korean Art (Seoul, 1987), pl. 137


Decoration rendered in sgraffito, incising and brushed slip is associated with the kilns of Cholla province in the southwest. Typical of Choson stoneware the body is heavily potted, the white slip brushed roughly over the surface of the vessel and the glaze thin and transparent with a faint green caste.

Punch'ong (literally "powder green") is a greyish stoneware brushed with white slip characterized by bold and seemingly spontaneous decoration greatly admired not only in Korea but also in Japan and in the West in this century.