Pedestal Bowl with Lightly Domed Cover, the Base with Openwork Decoration in Two Registers
5th-early 6th century
Description
This stately covered food cup rests on an elongated conical base that flares strongly at the bottom but then constricts to a virtually cylindrical form at the top. Of compressed hemispherical shape, the bowl springs directly from the pedestal base. The lightly domed cover rises from a short, vertical lip; a small, button-form handle rises from its top. Together, the bowl and cover form a compressed sphere. Two pairs of relief bowstring lines divide the conical base into three horizontal registers. Elongated, vertically oriented apertures enliven the upper and middle registers of the base, the apertures stacked (rather than alternating in checkerboard fashion). A molded, relief ridge accentuates the division between the cover's lip and dome and serves as a visual springboard for the arching dome. An incised bowstring line midway between ridge and handle divides the cover into two horizontal registers; each register sports a ring of short, vertically oriented, dotted lines that radiate outward from the handle. The dotted lines likely were created with a roulette wheel. The covered pedestal bowl is unglazed; though made of light to medium gray stoneware, the exterior surfaces appear charcoal gray to black in most areas, due to carbon saturation during firing. The kiln inclusions--perhaps fine sand--that appear around the flaring portion of the base became integrally affixed to the piece during firing. The light gray hue of the stoneware is visible on the interior of bowl and cover, indicating that the vessel must have been fired with its cover in place, with the result that carbon from the smoke in the firing chamber did not reach those areas. Dirt and other burial adhesions appear in localized areas, particularly inside the pedestal base, in the apertures, and on the interior of both bowl and cover.
Dimensions
bowl only: H. 16.1 x Diam. 18.3 cm (6 5/16 x 7 3/16 in.) bowl and cover: H. 21.2 cm (8 3/8 in.)
Provenance
[through ?, Korea, mid 1960s]; to Jerry Lee Musslewhite (mid 1960s-2009); to Estate of Jerry Lee Musslewhite (2009-2010), sold; to Harvard Art Museums, 2010. NOTE: Jerry Lee Musslewhite was an employee of the U.S. Department of Defense who worked in the Republic of Korea from 1965 to 1969.
Related Artworks
View MoreFritware with underglaze painting
13th-14th centuryPersianPlaster
Ceramic
18th centuryDutchTerracotta
14th-12th century BCEMycenaeanMetal
20th centuryAustrianSilver
17th centuryBritishSilver
18th centuryIrishPolychrome plaster
20th centuryMinoanJizhou-type ware, probably Tushan ware: light gray stoneware with variegated brown and amber glazes over a white slip ground, the lower portion of the bottle coated with dark russet slip. Probably from the kilns at Tushan, Sichuan province.
12th-14th centuryChineseTerracotta with red and cream painted decoration
6th-5th millennium BCEAnatolianFritware with overglaze painted luster decoration
12th-13th centuryPersian