Lot 134. A Buncheong slip-decorated stoneware bottle, Joseon Dynasty, (15th-16th century); 8 ¾ in. (22.3 cm) high. Estimate USD 80,000 - USD 100,000. © Christie's Image Ltd 2018.

 Of flattened globular form rising from a high splayed foot to the cylindrical neck that ends in a rolled lip, cut in the white slip applied to the body with lotus arabesques with incised-line details and applied with a celadon-tinged clear glaze, the circular foot rim unglazed.

Property from the Sakamoto Family Collection

Provenance: Kochukyo Co. Ltd., Tokyo

Note: Brushed slip and sgraffito carving are associated with the kilns of Cholla province in the southwest. The underglaze white slip is thickly applied over the heavily potted body and the design incised in relief to the ground, a contrasting grayish-green when the vessel is fired. The overglaze is thin and transparent with a faint greenish cast which can be more pronounced, as in this example, where the glaze is more thickly applied. These buncheong (literally, "powder green") wares signaled a robust new era of ceramic design. The boldness of conception and spontaneity of these carved patterns has been admired consistently in Korea and Japan and in the West since the turn of the twentieth century.

For similar vessels see Mishima henko ten / Exhibition of Punch'ong Ware of Yi Dynasty, Korea (Osaka: Museum of Oriental Ceramics, 1984), nos. 24, 25; Funsei saki ten / Punch'ong Ware of Choson Dynasty, Korea (ibid, 1996), pls. 33-37; Byung-chang Rhee, Masterpieces of Korean Art--Yi Ceramics (Tokyo: privately published, 1978), no. 71; G. St. G. M. Gompertz, Korean Pottery and Porcelain of the Yi Period (London: Faber and Faber, 1968), no. 24A.