Melon-form Wine Pot

The celadon glaze was first produced in China around the ninth or tenth century and must have reached Korea not long afterward. It quickly gained popularity there and became the dominant style of ceramic in Korea during the Goryeo dynasty (918-1392). Early Goryeo celadons mostly imitated Chinese prototypes, but by the eleventh century, Korean potters were already developing their own distinctive forms and decorative motifs. One important innovation was the creation of new forms based on natural shapes, such as the melon shape of this wine pot. Korean potters also devised a new way of decorating celadons with designs that were laid into the bodies of the vessels beneath the glaze using black and white clay slips. By the early twelfth century, Goryeo celadons had reached such a high state of development that they even impressed a visiting Chinese envoy, who wrote that the Korean wares compared favorably with celadons produced in China. The Korean celadon industry was badly disrupted by the Mongol invasion in the thirteenth century and never regained its former level of excellence as tastes shifted to new styles of stoneware and porcelain in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

This melon-form pot would most likely have been used to serve warm rice wine. Its lid was probably originally attached to its handle by a silver or bronze chain. Fine examples of Korean celadon have long been prized by collectors. This wine pot is one of seventeen pieces of Goryeo celadon that were donated to the AMAM in 1949 by a Cleveland resident who acquired the pieces while serving in Korea as a doctor during the early decades of the twentieth century.