Celadon Bottle with Inlaid Chrysanthemum Design

Goryeo Period (13th Century)

This vessel is a quintessential example of the Goryeo wine bottle form: a long, gracefully curving neck; a widely flared mouth rim; and a full, gently elongated body of ample proportion. The decoration is restrained and well-composed: two encircling lines define the shoulder, below which a band of ruyi-head motifs is rendered in spare, elegant white inlay. At three points around the body, three-blossom chrysanthemum sprays in full bloom are crisply rendered, evoking the unpretentious beauty of wild field chrysanthemums. The glaze is a deep green celadon, transparent and luminous, with a fine overall luster. The foot ring is low and broad, and traces of clay-mixed kiln supports on which the piece was fired remain on the base. Produced at celadon kilns in Gangjin and Buan around the mid-thirteenth century, this bottle belongs to a period when the distinctively Goryeo vocabulary of flowing, sinuous form and indigenous floral motifs — among which the wild chrysanthemum held a place of particular affection — had come into its fullest and most widespread expression.