White Porcelain Dish with Floral Design in Underglaze Cobalt Blue

Joseon Period (18th Century)

This dish presents a wide, plate-shaped body set upon a tall foot ring pierced with openwork perforations. The interior is decorated in deep, richly toned underglaze blue with a composition of unnamed wildflowers in full bloom, rendered with the quality and assurance of a finished painting — dignified in bearing and refined in execution. The exterior is sparsely ornamented with shippo (seven-treasure) motifs distributed at intervals. The glaze is a white porcelain glaze with a faint suffusion of pale blue, limpid and clear. The piece was produced at the Bunwon-ri kiln in Gwangju during the latter half of the eighteenth century, intended for use at banquets and celebratory gatherings. Traces of sand kiln supports on which the piece was fired remain on the base of the foot ring.