White Porcelain Bottle with Bamboo-shaped Relief and Blue Decoration

Joseon · 3F · Sculpture and Crafts · Buncheong Ware and White Porcelain

This porcelain bottle has a cylindrical body that was carved and trimmed to resemble the joints of bamboo, with a spout—also shaped like a bamboo joint—attached at one corner of the top. Bamboo leaves were carved in relief on the upper and lower joints of the body and then painted with clear, fine cobalt-blue pigment. The restrained, elegant form and the neat arrangement of the design come together to produce a distinctive beauty. The foot rim was trimmed flat, the glaze wiped away, and the piece fired on a refractory-clay support mixed with coarse sand; it is an example of the figuratively shaped porcelain stationery objects of the late Joseon period.

See it in person at the National Museum of Korea — 3F · Sculpture and Crafts · Buncheong Ware and White Porcelain

Source: based on official e-museum records (National Museum of Korea).