A Large Korean Iron Brown Underglaze White Porcelain Jar, Joseon Dynasty, 17th Century

Joseon Dynasty, 17th Century

The large globular vessel with thumb-molded lip above a bulbous, spherical body; raised on a ring foot the underside of which remains unglazed, painted with vibrant stylized scrolling floral and foliate forms; with accompanying Japanese wood storage box and cover.
Note:
A similar 17th Century Joseon jar, also decorated with stylized meandering plant forms in iron brown underglaze, see The Radiance of Jade and the Clarity of Water, Korean Ceramics from the Ataka Collection, plate 92, page 128.

Diameter 15 x Height 13 in., 38.1 x 33.02 cm.

Property from the Collection of Edwin Hardy, San Francisco, California.

Provenance:

Private collection of Marcus W. Scherbacher, San Pedro, California.

Ex. collection of Robert W. Moore, Los Angeles, California. Purchased from the above in either 1994 or 1995.

Accompanied by a signed letter from Robert W. Moore.

Property from the Collection of Edwin Hardy, San Francisco, California.

Marcus W. Scherbacher was recruited for a career in Foreign Services shortly before his appointment in 1948 as Cultural Attaché to John Muccio, U.S. Ambassador, to the Republic of Korea.

Several years after Moore purchased this jar, Sotheby’s sold the remaining portion of the Scherbacher collection on September 26, 1997, in New York as a single-owner auction.