Cleveland Museum of Art

Square Bottle with Squirrel and Grapes

Date

late 1600s

Medium

porcelain with overglaze color enamel (possibly Hizen ware, Kakiemon type)

Culture

Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)

Department

Japanese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

In the 1600s, Korean and Japanese elites could enjoy wine from Europe. In his 1636 travel diary called Haecharok , Kim Seryeom, a vice director of Korean envoys to Japan, recorded that the head of Japan’s Tsusima Island treated him to Western red wine. Therefore, export porcelain ware like Square Bottle with Squirrel and Grapes could have been made as a wine bottle.

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