A copper-decorated porcelain jar


Joseon dynasty (1392-1897), 18th centuryThe compressed ovoid jar set on a high ring foot and finished with an upright neck, the body freely painted with leafy plants in underglaze copper red with tinges of green where the glaze has oxidizedWith a wooden storage box with a label inscribed in Japanese Richo shinsha momiji moyo tsubo (Korean jar with maple design in copper red) 9in (23cm) high
|ProvenancePurchased from N.V. HammerDr. and Mrs. Robert Dickes, and thence by descent Exhibited"The Art of the Korean Potter, Silla, Koryo, Yi," shown at the following venues:Asia House Gallery, New York: April 18-June 2, 1968Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto: July 16-August 30, 1968The Art Institute of Chicago: October 5-November 17, 1968PublishedThe Art of the Korean Potter, Silla, Koryo, Yi, Asia Society, Asia House Galleries, 1968, no. 97.When first exhibited in 1968, this jar was thought to date from the seventeenth century on account of its compressed globular form and motif of wind-blown bamboo branches, but later research places the development of copper-red decoration in the eighteenth century, at kilns that have yet to be identified. The present subtly formed jar seems to be unique among surviving examples so far published. Other jars with copper-red bamboo are in the National Museum of Korea, dated to the late eighteenth century (see Hongnam Kim ed., Korean Arts of the Eighteenth Century: Splendor and Simplicity, New York, Asia Society, 1993, cat. no. 75, pp.160 and 222), the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (acc. no.50.1113) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no.1979.413.2), but their complex silhouettes and whimsical painted decoration set them apart from the sober simplicity of the present lot. Its upright neck and full, balanced body recall instead whiteware moon jars produced at government kilns in the early eighteenth century; see Carolyn Kyongshin Koh Choo, Traditional Korean Ceramics: A Look by a Scientist, Seoul, Designnanoom, 2016, p.117, fig. 5-16a-c for examples from the National Museum of Korea, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (acc. no.50.1040), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no.1979.413.1). It may only be a coincidence, but the faint pinkish burn in the creamy white glaze of this jar also appears in the glazes of the above-cited moon jars.