Accession Number
2004/1.166

Title
Cord-marked round-bottomed jar with wide, flared mouth

Artist(s)
Korean

Artist Nationality
Korean (culture or style)

Object Creation Date
5th century

Medium & Support
stoneware with impressed cord marks, incised decoration, and natural ash glaze

Dimensions
8 1/8 x 5 5/16 x 5 5/16 in. (20.6 x 13.4 x 13.4 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Bruce and Inta Hasenkamp and Museum purchase made possible by Elder and Mrs. Sang-Yong Nam

Label copy
The spotty patches of shiny gray-green on the shoulder of this jar were caused by wood ash floating through the kiln. When ash alights on the hot surface of a pot, it vitrifies and produces an uneven glaze. The glazing is thus an unintended side effect of the firing process. Later, Korean potters would learn to control ash-glazing effects.
Maribeth Graybill, The Enduring Art of the Korean Potter, December 12, 2004-November 6, 2005

Subject matter
The grayish-blue stoneware is one of the earthenware of the Iron ages. Its clay is similar to that of the reddish brown earthenware. But Its hardness is harder. The design is usually cross stripes or check. It was almost excavated in the Iron age shell mounds of the southern coast of the Korea.

Physical Description
This grayish-blue stoneware jar has a globular body and short, flared neck. The entire surface of the body is adorned with wave pattern and encircled with many thin incised lines. The base is flat.

This is a dark gray, long-necked, high-fired stoneware jar with a wide mouth. Its neck is widely flared, while an olive brown natural glaze has formed on the inner surface of the neck and on the shoulder. Shallow incised horizontal lines encircle the outer surface of the neck. The neck shows traces of rotation and water smoothing. The body is widest at its upper-middle part, and a series of incised horizontal lines surrounds the body in three places in its upper part. The areas in between these lines are decorated with wave designs created by combs with many teeth. The vessel originally featured a paddled pattern consisting of diagonally parallel lines along the upper-middle part of the body, and a diagonal crosshatch paddled pattern right below. However, these designs were erased by subsequent rotation and water smoothing to be finally replaced with the incised horizontal lines and wave designs.

[Korean Collection, University of Michigan Museum of Art (2017) p. 49]

Primary Object Classification
Ceramic

Primary Object Type
jar

Additional Object Classification(s)
Decorative Arts

Collection Area
Asian

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form. Keywords
Three Kingdoms (Korean)
cord marking
earthenware
jar
jars