The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 24, 2024

Dog-shaped Paperweight

Dog-shaped Paperweight

676–935
(676-935)
gilt bronze
Overall: 5 x 2.7 cm (1 15/16 x 1 1/16 in.)
Gift of Robert H. Ellsworth in honor of Sherman E. Lee 1987.160
Location: 236 Korean

Did You Know?

This is a dog and lion hybrid.

Description

This small object in the shape of a hybrid dog-lion is believed to have been used as a paperweight. Since the Three Kingdoms period (57 BC−668), mercury amalgam gilding had been widely employed to embellish metal objects as well as to make their surface resistant to acids. This technique involves mixing pure gold powder with liquid mercury to form a paste-like mixture. As heat is applied, the mercury evaporates, but an opaque layer of gold remains on the surface. This coating must be polished by first rubbing it with dried rice seedlings, then processing it in ash lye to eliminate impurities; next, the piece is washed and rinsed in a plum vinegar bath.
  • ?–1987
    Robert H. Ellsworth [1929–2014], New York, NY, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    December 16, 1987–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1987.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 75, no. 2, 1988, pp. 30–71. Mentioned: cat. no. 212, p. 71; Reproduced: p. 65 www.jstor.org
    Lee, Soyoung, and Denise Patry Leidy. Silla: Korea's Golden Kingdom. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2013.
    Nelson, Sarah. Gyeongju: The Capital of Golden Silla. Routledge, 2019.
    “Exhibitions through November 2022.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 59, vol. 62 no. 3 (September, 2022): 13. Reproduced: P. 13.
  • Interpretation of Materiality: Gold (Korean art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 29-October 24, 2021).
    Scholar's Studio. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 19-December 17, 1989).
    The Year in Review for 1987. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 24-April 17, 1988).
  • {{cite web|title=Dog-shaped Paperweight|url=false|author=|year=676–935|access-date=24 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1987.160