Page 62 - Symbols_of_Identity_Korean_Ceramics_from the Chang Collection

his “plum bottle” (Kr: maebyeong, Ch: méipíng) has
Ta dark gray body with a small, trumpet mouth and
broad, gently sloping shoulders that taper down to a nar-
row waist, ending with a flaring foot and flat base. Only the
mouth is coated with glaze. Potting rings are visible along
the sides, and finger imprints can be seen on the lower sec-
tion of the bottle.

Maebyeong were adopted from Chinese prototypes during
the twelfth century and were used to store plumb or gin-
seng wine. Though often lost, celadon examples originally
had associated lids. If unglazed stoneware examples never
had lids, they may have been plugged with a wood or cloth
stopper to protect the contents. Most Goryeo examples
of maebyeong have a dish-shaped mouth. The glazed and
trumpeted mouth makes this a very uncommon design,
though a similarly shaped fourteenth-century Chinese por-
celain méipíng is in the collection of the Nanjing Museum.
1
There are no tell-tale signs of restoration of the mouth un-
der close visual scrutiny, but previous repair work cannot
be discounted without more scientific means of examina-
41. tion. The finger imprints were caused by someone handling
Bottle the bottle before it was fired.
13th–14th century, Goryeo
TL results: fired between 800 & 1,300 years ago
Stoneware, possibly with glaze
H: 30 cm, W: 17.5 cm

1 Huping Xu, The Treasures of the Nanjing Museum (Hong Kong: London Editions, 2001), 57.

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