Cleveland Museum of Art

Lidded Vessel with Loop Handles

Date

57 BCE–668 CE

Medium

earthenware, with impressed, paddled, and incised decoration and red slip

Culture

Korea, Three Kingdoms period (57 BCE–668 CE)

Department

Korean Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This small storage jar was hand built from coils of clay before it was finished on a potter's wheel. The thick, vertical ridges covering the surface were impressed into the wet clay using a carved wooden paddle. This network of raised lines was then intersected by four incised lines coursing around the bulbous form and separating the body into lower and upper areas with deft visual simplicity. Such direct, effective design solutions to ceramic decoration appear frequently in early Korean ceramics. The two perforations in the upper body were no doubt used to help secure the lid to the body with cord. Closed kilns built on hills became widely used for producing this type of pottery vessel in Korea during the Three Kingdoms period.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.