This miniature sedan had long poles running through the holes in the base so it could be carried on the shoulders of footmen. It mimics the style and shape of palanquins used for transport of aristocratic women, but its small size indicates that it was used in funeral processions. It would have held the spirit of the deceased, as represented by an inscribed tablet. The tablet accompanied the coffin to the burial site, then was taken to the family ancestral shrine, where it was installed and worshipped regularly by surviving family members. As funeral rites became simpler in modern times, these miniature palanquins fell out of favor. Today they are extremely rare.

This bottle has been decorated using the “sgraffito,” or scratching, method: the gray clay body of the vessel was painted with white slip, and then the surface was scraped to reveal the darker surface beneath. It was then covered in transparent celadon glaze, which sealed and protected the decoration. The peony flower was a popular motif in Korean art because it represented wealth and high status.

The original purpose of this exquisite gold ornament is unclear. Based on its size and the way it curves upward, the dragon head may have decorated the end of a hairpin.

Royal tombs near the Silla capital city, Gyeongju, in southeast Korea, have yielded sophisticated gold adornments including crowns and earrings. Elaborate pendants like these were either worn as earrings or suspended from the sides of royal crowns to mimic earrings. Granulation, or small individual gold beads, is applied to the sheathing of the earrings’ upper segment as well as used to outline the individual leaf shape of the gold spangles and lower leaves. The technique is thought to have developed in Mesopotamia around the eighteenth century B.C.E. and then spread through Persia to the Greek and Roman empires, eventually travelling across the great Central Asia trade routes to China and the rest of East Asia. Its diffusion demonstrates the importance of Silk Road trade to East Asian material culture.

By the seventeenth century, porcelain had overtaken stoneware as the ceramic of choice for wealthy Koreans and underglaze brown—once favored for decoration of Buncheong stonewares—enjoyed a brief revival, this time on porcelain vessels. These large, bulbous storage jars were formed by joining two bowls, one inverted on top of the other. The swelling surfaces of the jars give dimension and energy to curvilinear forms, as seen in particular in the swirl of the highly abstracted dragon.