A Korean inlaid celadon wine cup

高麗  青瓷黑白镶嵌卉花纹酒杯

The cup is of well potted small globular shape with rounded sides curved in towards the wide mouth, supported on a small foot with low footrim. The exterior is decorated in sanggam technique of inlaid slips, with four evenly spaced florets, with white petals and black foliage, below a white key-fret band below the rim. The whole is applied with a celadon glaze of good grey-green colour pooling to a bluer tone in places, with the glaze extending over the footrim, showing traces of three spurs.

Sanggam technique, in which black or white slips were inlaid into designs incised onto the surface of wares before application of a celadon glaze, was one of the great advances made by the potters of the Goryeo dynasty. It seems likely that the inspiration for this innovative technique was the inlay of bronzes with silver wire at around the same period, during the twelfth century. For a discussion of the history of sanggam technique, see Yun Yong-I's essay, 'The Origin and Development of Goryeo Sanggam Celadon'. For a very similar wine cup, see Catalogue of Selected Masterpieces from the Nezu Museum, Decorative Art, illus. 123 (centre), p.110.

Dimensions: Diameter: 8.4 cm, 3 ⅜ inches

Date: Goryeo dynasty (918-1392), 12th/13th century

Stock No. 1994

Price: On Request