Lidded Vessel with Loop Handles (lid) Korea, Iron Age (c. 300–57 BCE)

Lidded Vessel with Loop Handles (lid)

300–1 BCE

Korea, Iron Age

(c. 300–57 BCE)

earthenware, with impressed, paddled, and incised decoration and red slip

Gift of the Kang Collection of Korean Art in memory of Robert P. Bergman 1999.228.b

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Did You Know?

Closed kilns built on hills became widely used for producing this type of pottery vessel in Korea during the Three Kingdoms period.

Description

This small storage jar was hand built from coils of clay before it was finished on a potter's wheel. The thick, vertical ridges covering the surface were impressed into the wet clay using a carved wooden paddle. This network of raised lines was then intersected by four incised lines coursing around the bulbous form and separating the body into lower and upper areas with deft visual simplicity. Such direct, effective design solutions to ceramic decoration appear frequently in early Korean ceramics. The two perforations in the upper body were no doubt used to help secure the lid to the body with a cord.