A BLUE AND WHITE PORCELAIN WATER DROPPER

CHOSON PERIOD (SECOND HALF 18TH CENTURY)

Details
A BLUE AND WHITE PORCELAIN WATER DROPPER
choson period (second half 18th century)
Square, resting on a flat base with four flat, rectangular sides and flat, square top, with a side spout moulded in the form of a large cicada, painted in vivid lines and washes of underglaze-blue with five different panels framed by slender lines of underglaze-blue, each of the four side panels drawn with a scene illustrating the seven-syllable poem to the right; covered by a blue-tinged transparent glaze with even lustre, the base unglazed
3 5/8 x 3 5/8 x 2¾in. (9.3 x 9.3 x 7cm.)

Lot Essay

Published:
Byung-chang Rhee, Masterpieces of Korean Art--Yi Ceramics (Tokyo: privately published, 1978), pl. 442.

On the side with a cicada spout there is a scholar riding an amusingly-drawn donkey beneath overhanging foliage. He approaches a tiled-roof pavilion partially hidden behind the edge of a hill. The poem says: "Beating the donkey with his whip, he listens to the singing of cicadas and thinks about composing a poem." The next side shows a man standing on a rocky shore, with a school of fish swimming toward him. The poem reads: "Fish see the shadow of bamboo and fear that it is a bamboo fishing rod." The third panel shows two figures standing beneath a willow tree. An oversize bird perches on one long branch. The poem reads: "The sun shines on the green willow, where a yellow bird is sitting." The fourth panel shows a large bird flying above the treetops on a hill, with clouds overhead. The poem says: "The fields are green and a white crane is flying overhead."