Buncheong Bottle with Inlaid Lotus and Vine Design

Joseon Period (15th Century)

This well-proportioned wine bottle presents a form of quiet stability: a widely flared, trumpet-shaped mouth rim; a body that expands gradually from the shoulder to achieve its fullest girth at the lower body, lending the vessel a grounded, assured presence. A band of interlocking circle motifs (yeongwanmun) encircles the shoulder, and across the body a lotus scroll (yeondangcho) design is rendered in black-and-white inlay with a lyrical, flowing ease — as though the motifs are being sung rather than drawn. The glaze is a deep, dark greenish-brown, applied across the entire surface with an even luster. This piece is a characteristic example of inlaid Buncheong ware from the first half of the fifteenth century, and was used as a vessel for wine. The composed stability of the form and the light, rhythmic movement of the inlaid decoration work in graceful counterpoint — together producing a work of quiet vitality and lasting appeal.