Buncheong

粉青沙器 / 14th–16th century / Style / Ceramic Styles

Buncheong is Korean stoneware whose bluish grey body is covered with white slip, and its name shortens a phrase used by the art historian Go Yuseop. The group is sorted by how the slip is applied, through inlay, stamping, sgraffito, incising, iron painting, brushed slip and dipped slip. Because the coating is never even, the marks of the hand stay on the finished pot.

Buncheong — Buncheong jar with sgraffito peony design, Joseon dynasty, second half of the 15th century — Wikimedia Commons / CC0 — Buncheong jar with sgraffito peony design, Joseon dynasty, second half of the 15th century — Wikimedia Commons / CC0 · CC0

Buncheong — Buncheong bale-shaped bottle with iron-painted scrolling foliage, Joseon dynasty — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Buncheong bale-shaped bottle with iron-painted scrolling foliage, Joseon dynasty — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Buncheong — Buncheong large dish with stamped chrysanthemum and tortoiseshell design and "Naeseom" inscription, Joseon dynasty, mid-15th century — Wikimedia Commons / CC0 — Buncheong large dish with stamped chrysanthemum and tortoiseshell design and "Naeseom" inscription, Joseon dynasty, mid-15th century — Wikimedia Commons / CC0 · CC0

At a glance

Visual cues

White slip lies over a bluish grey body, and the unevenness of the coating is the pattern
On brushed pieces the bristle tracks run in one direction as a white band
On stamped pieces small chrysanthemums are pressed edge to edge and filled with white slip, leaving rows of white dots
On dipped pieces one hard line marks how deep the pot went into the slip, with grey body showing below it

Best used for

When tableware or bottles of one shape should each carry a different surface
When stamped repetition and loose handwork have to share one pot in only white and grey

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Dictionary entry

Type: Lettering is not the subject. Put a mark or a date in as a thin incised line filled with white slip, at the same weight as the drawn lines.
Composition: Decorate only the faces that are seen and leave the base and footring bare. Build in three bands: one line at the rim, the main motif on the body, and white left alone.
Material: Throw a bluish grey clay body, then brush the white slip on or dip the whole pot. Carve, stamp and scrape the slip away to move the white around, then glaze clear and fire. Stop short of a full white so the grey body still shows through.
Caution: Even out the brush marks and the record of speed disappears, leaving a merely white pot.
Further study: the seven decorative techniques set out under buncheong sagi (300459835) in the Getty AAT / the order of stamping and then wiping the white slip back, seen on the stamped small dish in the V&A (O22348) / how demand for white porcelain rose from the late fifteenth into the early sixteenth century and this style declined

Related entries

Mingei (民藝)Shared effects: Calm / Intimacy.Compare Buncheong and Mingei
Sumi-e (水墨画)Shared effects: Calm / Intimacy.Compare Buncheong and Sumi-e

Often confused with

Goryeo Celadon (高麗青磁)compare

Cite this entry

The dictionary is meant to be linked to. Take whichever form fits where you are writing.

Link: https://indexstyle.org/styles/buncheong
Markdown: [Buncheong — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/buncheong)
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