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Pottery: Unknown
Box and cover with peonies and bats. Porcelain, thrown, painted in cobalt-blue and glazed. This piece resembles a deep bowl (sabal) with a cover shaped like a dish (chopsi). The broad base has a deep footring. The body is thick and heavy. On the top of the cover is a slightly recessed medallion in which the character su ('long life') is inscribed in ornamental form; around it are bats in flight among flowering peony sprays. The sides of the bowl are similarly painted with two sprays of flowering peony, all in underglaze cobalt-blue. The cobalt colour harmonises well with the pale bluish-white glaze. The rims of both cover and bowl and the footring were wiped free of glaze and the piece was supported on fine sandy fire-clay spurs.
History note: Unknown before donor
Given by Dr W.M. Tapp
Height: 13.6 cm
Method of acquisition: Given (1920-06-23) by Tapp, W. M., Dr
19th Century-20th Century#
Choson Dynasty (1392 - 1910)
Circa
1850
-
1930
This vessel could have been used as a container for spices such as sesame or hot peppers. The designs symbolise longevity (the su character), happiness (the bat; in Chinese homophonous with 'happiness') and wealth (the peony). For a similar design on a ewer in the Ewha Womans University Museum, Seoul, see Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol.19, 1980, pl.185; and for a sherd of similar type and design found at Punwon-ri, ibid. pl.239 centre.
Decoration
composed of
glaze
Foot
Diameter 10.3 cm
Rim
Diameter 18.2 cm
Cover
Diameter 19.6 cm
Throwing
: Porcelain, thrown, painted in cobalt-blue, and glazed
Glazing (coating)
Accession number: C.7 & A-1920
Primary reference Number: 16494
Catalogue number: 1851
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Box" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/16494 Accessed: 2024-04-26 21:34:02
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/16494
|title=Box
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-04-26 21:34:02|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:
https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-16494
To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:
<div class="text-center">
<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa14/C_7_20_26_20A_1920_281_29.jpg"
alt="Box"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Box</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
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