Wine Flask with Incised and Sgraffito Peony Design

1500s

Wine Flask with Incised and Sgraffito Peony Design, 1500s. Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392-1910). Stoneware with incised design (Buncheong ware); overall: 22.6 cm (8 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of John L. Severance 1921.649 Produced in both central and provincial kilns during during the 1400s–1500s, buncheong (literally means "powdered green"), like this wine flask commonly feature gray-green glaze due to the usage of less processed and refined clay high in iron. Many experimental techniques such as white slip, inlay, stamping, and incising, which had been explored and perfected in the Goryeo period, were also adopted for buncheong pottery. The artist for this work extensively used the incising technique to draw both floral and abstract patterns. The term buncheong, which refers to this type of pottery, means "powdered gray-green glazed ceramics.”