Unglazed Ceramic Maebyeong Jar with Lid: Inlaid Plum Blossom Branches

Those who choose this work tend to recognise beauty where refinement has been deliberately held back.

“The vessel stands like a remembered winter tree, rooted in earth and carrying the first signs of renewal.”

Korean Unglazed Ceramic Maebyeong Jar with Lid: Inlaid Plum Blossom Branches by Lee Sang-bong of Icheon is a ceramic work that draws together several layers of Korean material memory. It uses the noble outline of the maebyeong, the symbolic language of plum blossom, the tactile force of unglazed fired clay, and the ancient echo of combed surface marking.

The form is central to the reading of the work. A maebyeong is not simply a jar shape; it is a form built on controlled tension. The narrow foot gives the object lift, the swelling shoulder creates volume, and the contracted mouth draws the eye upward. Lee uses this structure as a living ground for the plum branch. The branch does not merely decorate the body. It begins low, climbs across the vessel, turns with the rounded shoulder, and continues onto the lid. The composition therefore asks to be viewed slowly, by rotation rather than by a single frontal glance.

The plum tree is arranged asymmetrically, which gives the vessel its sense of growth. The dark branches move with angular strength, while the small white blossoms interrupt them with points of softness. The red clay centres within the flowers are restrained, almost hidden at first, but they give warmth to the otherwise quiet palette. This relationship between branch and blossom is important: the branch suggests endurance; the blossom suggests renewal. Together they form one of the most enduring symbolic pairings in Korean and East Asian literati culture, where the plum blossom is admired for flowering in cold weather and for carrying a sense of uprightness, purity, and perseverance.

The making process deepens this symbolism. After the first firing, the plum branches were worked into the surface, and the flowers were formed with white and red clay. The work was then fired again without glaze. By leaving the surface unglazed, the artist refuses the luminous glass-like skin of celadon and the softened white-clay decorative presence associated with buncheong. Instead, the jar remains close to the nature of clay itself. It has the quiet dryness of earthen material, yet because it has undergone high-temperature firing, it carries a firmness and durability beyond its modest appearance.

The combed texture is one of the most compelling aspects of the work. These fine vertical marks do more than animate the surface. They recall ancient Korean comb-pattern pottery, bringing into the vessel a memory of early ceramic culture. Around the plum branches, the combed lines act almost like weather: rain, bark, field, or time passing across clay. They give the blossoms a ground from which to appear, and they prevent the design from becoming merely pictorial. The surface remains ceramic before it becomes image.

The lid changes the work’s emotional register. With the lid in place, the jar feels complete, sealed, and watchful. The plum branch continuing across the lid links upper and lower parts, so the closure does not interrupt the design but completes its ascent. When the lid is removed and placed beside the vessel, the work becomes more intimate. One begins to understand it not only as a sculptural form, but as a vessel with an interior, a mouth, a possible act of opening. This movement between closed and opened states gives the piece a quiet ritual character.

There is a notable restraint in the whole composition. The blossoms are numerous but not lavish. The branch is bold but not theatrical. The unglazed clay resists surface brilliance, and the combed lines slow the eye rather than dazzling it. The work’s refinement comes from this discipline. It does not separate elegance from earth; it lets elegance emerge from earth.

Lee Sang-bong’s jar holds together two different times: the ancient memory of combed pottery and the cultivated symbolism of the plum blossom. Between them stands the maebyeong form, poised and human in scale, carrying the presence of a vessel that has been shaped not for spectacle, but for long attention.

Dimensions

• Height- 40cm (15.75 inch)

• Diameter- 20cm (7.87 inch)

Related Links

• About Celadon

• Master Artisan’s Collection

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