Bowl with Concentric Bands of Inscriptions, Palmettes, and Braided Strapwork
10th-11th century
Description
An accurate assessment of the state of this bowl, “damaged but all original,” appears in a note in Calderwood’s handwriting pasted inside the foot ring. On the exterior, the bowl has lost much of its glaze and slip-painted decoration. Most of the present interior decoration is overpainting, but the remaining original surfaces provide evidence that the restorer has reconstructed the design with reasonable accuracy. The outermost inscription, in red, could be read as al-yumn (felicity). At the center, a band of braided strapwork encircles an elaborate composite motif of a diamond-shaped flower with four coiling arms that terminate in red disks and black trefoils. The reddish ceramic fabric was originally covered in a whitish slip and decorated in red, purplish black, and olive green. Straight, flaring walls rise from a low foot ring, which is covered in slip but unglazed.
Dimensions
11.7 x 34.4 cm (4 5/8 x 13 9/16 in.)
Provenance
[Mansour Gallery, London, 1971], sold; to Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood, Belmont, MA (1971-2002), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2002.
Related Artworks
View MoreQingbai ware: molded porcelain with pale sky-blue glaze
12th-13th centuryChineseSilver with parcel gilding and with inlaid black stone
4th-3rd century BCEChineseGrayish-buff stoneware with opaque light grayish-blue glaze. Made in northeastern Korea, probably in Hoeryŏng-gun, possibly in Myŏngc'hŏn-gun, North Hamgyŏng province.
17th-19th centuryKoreanGray earthenware
16th-15th century BCEChineseTerracotta, gray ware
3rd millennium BCEAnatolianEarthenware with green lead glaze
1st century BCE-1st century CEChineseTerracotta
Gray stoneware with incised and openwork decoration
6th centuryKoreanGray stoneware with incised, combed, and openwork decoration. Reportedly recovered from a tomb in Ch'angnyŏng, South Kyŏngsang province.
6th centuryKoreanBlue-and-white ware: porcelain with decoration painted in underglaze cobalt blue
17th-18th centuryChineseHorn
17th centuryChineseCeramic
18th centuryJapanese