Peach-shaped White Porcelain Water Dropper with Tree Leaf Design in Underglaze Cobalt Blue

Joseon Period (19th Century)

This water dropper is modeled as a ripe, full-bodied peach in the fullness of its ripeness, its surface articulated with incised lobes that evoke the form of flower petals. The pointed tip of the peach is accented in underglaze blue, and peach leaves and branches are painted around it with a light, natural hand. Produced at the Bunwon-ri kiln during the first half of the nineteenth century, this is a beautifully resolved example of the peach-shaped water dropper — a form that combines naturalistic modeling with refined decorative sensibility to entirely pleasing effect.