White Porcelain Donghwa Maeguk Pattern Vase Loses National Treasure Status: "Common Chinese Ceramic"

The Third Ever National Treasure Delisting: "The Work's Quality Did Not Even Influence Domestic Ceramic History"

The National Treasure No. 168, the ‘Baekja Donghwa Maegukmun (銅畵梅菊文) Bottle’ housed at the National Museum of Korea, has lost its status as a national treasure. On the 23rd, the Cultural Heritage Administration announced that it has revoked the national treasure designation of this artifact, as there has been a continuous need to reassess its status and value as a national treasure.

This is due to repeated evaluations that it is not an early Joseon white porcelain. The ‘Baekja Donghwa Maegukmun Bottle,’ which is 21.4 cm tall with a mouth diameter of 4.9 cm and was purchased for 300 yen from the Japanese antique dealer Amatsu Motaro (天池茂太郞), was designated as a national treasure on July 4, 1974. It was recognized for its rare and splendid patterns and stable form among early Joseon works using cinnabar (辰砂), a red pigment. However, it is said that there are no examples of early Joseon white porcelain decorated with donghwa (銅畵, a technique of decorating patterns using copper-based pigments). Donghwa patterns appear in some late Goryeo artifacts from the 13th to 14th centuries but disappeared for a while before reappearing in white porcelain from the 18th to 20th centuries.

The Cultural Heritage Administration formed a research team consisting of Chinese and Korean ceramics experts to conduct a study. As a result, they concluded that the shape, size, technique, and patterns of the Baekja Donghwa Maegukmun Bottle closely resemble the Chinese Yuan Dynasty porcelain called ‘Youlihong (釉裏紅).’ This means the porcelain was made in 14th-century China, not 15th-century Joseon. An official explained, “The excavation site and provenance have unclear connections to Korea, and there are many similar types of porcelain in China, reducing its rarity. We also judged that the quality of the work is not outstanding enough to have influenced Korean ceramic history.”

This is the third time a national treasure designation has been revoked. Previously, the artifacts that lost their status were the ‘Gwiham Byeolhwangja Chongtong,’ a firearm mounted on the Turtle Ship later proven to be a fake, and the ‘Ihyeong Jwamyeongwonjonggongshin Nokgwon and Box (Treasure No. 1657),’ a third-class merit certificate issued by King Taejong to Ihyeong. When a cultural property is removed from the national designation, its assigned number is treated as vacant.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.