A moulded Korean celadon lotus-pattern shallow lobed footless bowl
高麗 青瓷印蓮花紋淺盌
The bowl is of shallow form with everted sides rising to a six-lobed rim indicated with small notches. The wide central field is plain, encircled around the well in moulded relief with a naturalistic band of water plants including multi-petalled lotus blossoms with open and furled leaves
and large arrowroot leaves. A glaze of translucent bluish green suffused with crazing covers the bowl inside and out, leaving only three spur-marks on the underside of the flat base unglazed.
The shallow footless bowl is a rare form. Taking into account the plain central field and the moulding of water plants around the well, it may be that the current example was intended as a brushwasher.
For a similar hexafoil footless bowl but decorated with a different moulded floral pattern, see Yun Yong-i, Korean Art from the Gompertz and Other Collections in the Fitzwilliam Museum, A Complete Catalogue, p.88, where the author suggests that it was made at Yuch’on-ri kilns, Puan.
Dimensions: Diameter: 15.1 cm, 6 inches
Date: Goryeo dynasty (918-1392), 12th century
Stock No. 2304
Price: On Request