Unglazed Ceramic Openwork Vase Set: Grand-Scale, Peony Motif with Three-Color Slip

This set is chosen by those who understand that the most persuasive beauty is often held in restraint rather than display.

"The flowers do not sit upon the vessels; they seem to have been coaxed slowly out of the clay."

Created by the Icheon ceramic artist Geunjeong Lee Sang-bong, this large-scale ceramic set unites the maebyeong and jubyeong in a work that is both materially grounded and technically ambitious. Its importance lies not only in motif or scale, but in the decision to depart from a conventional finished surface. Using a clay body associated with Buncheong ware, the artist leaves the vessels unglazed after firing. They were made this way so that the tactile and structural truth of the clay would remain present, rather than being sealed beneath a polished skin.

This choice governs how the work is seen. An unglazed surface absorbs light instead of casting it back. Because of this, the vessels do not announce themselves through sheen. They ask instead for slower looking: for the eye to register grain, incision, relief, dryness, and the subtle depth of the fired body. What first appears floral gradually reveals itself as a study in material discipline.

The decoration follows the same logic. After an initial firing, three colours of slip are laid onto the surface to define the peony branches, white petals, red stamens, and selected leaves. The body is then carved by hand so that the clay reappears between and around the motif. This is why the flowers do not feel pasted onto the vessel. They were made this way so that ornament and form would not stand apart from one another. The motif is embedded in the vessel’s skin, and the vessel in turn seems to carry the memory of its own making.

The openwork sections introduce a second layer of difficulty and meaning. Relief carving gives the floral forms their contour and density, but piercing creates interruption: openings of shadow, breath, and light בתוך the mass of clay. Structurally, this is a precarious act. The more the body is cut, the more carefully drying and firing must be judged to prevent movement or collapse. Yet visually, this risk is precisely what allows the work to breathe. The flowers gather fullness, but the pierced intervals keep that fullness from becoming closed or heavy.

The peony has long occupied a place of honour in Korean visual culture, signifying prosperity, beauty, dignity, and the fullness of life. In many works it appears with overt splendour. Here, however, it is deliberately moderated. The artist appears to have made the work this way in order to test whether the peony could retain its cultural richness while entering a more austere material language. The result is compelling because neither side overwhelms the other. The motif prevents the clay from becoming mute; the unglazed body prevents the motif from becoming decorative excess.

The pairing of vessel types sharpens this reading. The maebyeong gathers mass and concentration, its fuller body giving the composition a sense of inward gravity. The jubyeong rises more narrowly and releases the eye upward. Seen together, the two forms create a measured exchange between containment and extension. One vessel seems to hold the floral world close; the other lets it ascend. The set therefore unfolds not as duplication, but as conversation.

What finally distinguishes the work is the way technical experiment is made to serve visual quietness. Nothing in it feels demonstrative, although its execution is plainly difficult. The unglazed surface, the relief carving, the three-colour slip, and the openwork piercing all require command, yet the work does not present itself as virtuosity. It presents itself as presence.

This is why the set remains memorable. It does not rely on gloss to produce elegance, nor on volume to produce grandeur. Instead, it allows clay, incision, and controlled floral abundance to speak together. The result is not a Buncheong work in the narrow sense, but a thoughtful extension of a Buncheong-associated material language into something more experimental, dry, and quietly monumental.

Dimensions

• Mae Byeong
  Height- 44 cm (17.32 inch)
  Diameter- 24 cm (9.45 inch)
• Ju Byeong
  Height- 42.5 cm (16.73 inch)
  Diameter- 21 cm (8.27 inch)
  

Related Links

世界中に発送いたします。以下は当社の配送ポリシーを構成する利用規約です。

発送処理時間

• すべての注文は、支払いの受領後 5 日以内に処理されることを目指しています。ご注文は土日祝日は発送されません。
• ご注文が集中した場合、発送が数日遅れる場合がございます。ご注文の発送が遅れる場合には、メールでご連絡させていただきます。

配送料と配送目安

• すべての注文は、K-Packet、航空便、EMS、速達宅配便 (UPS、Fedex、DHL など) で発送されます。
• ゆうパケット発送は基本的な発送サービスです。 K-Packet の推定配送時間は、お住まいの地域に応じて 14 ～ 21 日です。重量が2kgを超える場合はKパケット便から航空便に変更させていただきます。
• EMS の推定配送時間は、地域によって異なりますが、7 ～ 14 日です。航空便による配送方法は国によっては利用できない場合があることにご注意ください。
• 速達の推定配送時間は 5 ～ 10 日です。
• ご注文の送料はチェックアウト時に計算されて表示されます。
• 小包は可能な限り追跡されて発送され、注文が処理されると追跡番号が記載された自動メールが届きます。

私書箱への発送

• 私書箱に発送します

出荷確認と注文追跡

• ご注文の発送が完了すると、追跡番号が記載された発送確認メールが届きます。

損害賠償

• Artinko は、配送中の製品の破損または紛失については責任を負いません。受け取ったご注文が破損していた場合は、写真を撮ってできるだけ早くご連絡ください。解決できるよう努めます。

関税

• あなたの荷物は到着時にあなたの国の税関の対象となる場合がありますのでご了承ください。関税は受取人の責任となります。
• これらの料金については当社では管理できないことにご注意ください。現地の税関で荷物が長期間保留されている場合、配達時間が遅れる場合もあります。

配送に問題がある場合は、goryeo.artinko@gmail.com までメールをお送りください。