Accession Number
2004/1.189A&B

Title
Pedestal Bowl with Cover

Artist(s)
Korean

Artist Nationality
Korean (culture or style)

Object Creation Date
6th century

Medium & Support
unglazed stoneware with incised and stamped decoration

Dimensions
6 1/8 x 4 15/16 x 4 15/16 in. (15.5 x 12.5 x 12.5 cm);2 13/16 x 4 15/16 x 4 15/16 in. (7 x 12.5 x 12.5 cm);3 3/8 x 4 13/16 x 4 13/16 in. (8.5 x 12.2 x 12.2 cm)

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

Label copy
March 28, 2009
Following the Chinese imports of the climbing kiln and the fast wheel, potters of Gaya and Silla in the fifth to the sixth century turned out tens of thousands of high-quality, thin-walled, stoneware pedestal food vessels like these. These two examples retained their original lids. One lid is surmounted by a Buddhist chattra (a canopy-shaped knob) and decorated with a herringbone pattern of small incised dots. The other has a button-shaped knob and is decorated with incised saw-toothed patterns and stamped bands of circles. Although they were also used in elite households, such pedestal bowls have survived in large numbers because they were buried with the deceased.
The incised and stamped designs on these vessels are thought to derive from cast-bronze artifacts. The shape is likely based on a Chinese bronze vessel known as a dou, which was probably transmitted to the Three Kingdoms through pottery examples in Manchuria and the Chinese colony of Luolan in northern Korea. Bowls of the same shape and pattern have also been found in tombs near present-day Osaka in Japan: the Yamato clans who ruled during the Tumulus Period (300–552) in Japan were close relatives of the Gaya people, who were conquered by Silla in 562.
(Label for UMMA Korean Gallery Opening Rotation, March 2009)

Subject matter
Footed bowl was found in the Three Kingdom and Unified Silla. It is one of the ritual vessels. It can be found in every tomb of that age. It is almost grayish-blue stoneware. At the beginning, It didn’t have lid and perforation. From 4C lid and perforation was made. Footed bowl is divided Silla style and Gaya style. The lid and bowl of Silla style are thick and the leg is slim. The perforation is located in altering position. In contrast, the lid and bowl of Gaya style is very flat and the leg is thick. The perforation is positioned in parallel.

Physical Description
Flaring base with spherical food storage bowl on top. The base is cut with evenly spaced rectangular holes. The lid is incised with a repeating design.

This is a grayish white, high-fired stoneware lidded stem cup. The lid features a button-shaped knob at the center, around which a thin circle is inscribed. Triangular line designs are contained within the circle, which is surrounded by a row of semicircles with dots inside. The single-tiered, perforated, trumpetshaped pedestal has three rectangular openings. The pedestal flares widely outwards towards its bottom, which has a horizontally spreading edge.

[Korean Collection, University of Michigan Museum of Art (2017) p. 62]

Primary Object Classification
Ceramic

Primary Object Type
bowl

Additional Object Classification(s)
Ritual Object

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)
bowls (vessels)
earthenware
lids (covers)
pedestals