Celadon Bottle with Inlaid Chrysanthemum, Lotus and Crane Design

Goryeo Period (14th Century)

This full-bodied wine bottle is a characteristic example of the fourteenth-century Goryeo form: a widely flared, trumpet-shaped mouth; a long, elongated neck; and a body that swells generously from the shoulder to create a sense of abundant, well-grounded volume. The body is divided into four vertical panels, each decorated in black-and-white inlay with a repeating chrysanthemum scroll and, set in symmetrical arrangement, ducks and cranes amid a lotus pond. The glaze is a pale grayish-blue celadon, with areas of greenish-brown discoloration visible on portions of the surface. The flowing continuity of the chrysanthemum vine and the serene imagery of lotus, waterfowl, and cranes — all rendered within the quiet world of a lotus pond — harmonize with great naturalness against the vessel's full and stable form. The piece is presumed to have been produced at celadon kilns in Gangjin during the fourteenth century. The foot ring is broad and low, with traces of sand kiln supports on which the piece was fired.