Water Dropper
19th century
Maker Unknown
Asian Art
Throughout eastern Asia, writers and painters created their own ink by adding drops of water to dry pigment. Water droppers with tiny spouts were a standard accessory for any desk, and they became one of the few decorative items that proper Confucian scholars could display in their studies without accusations of frivolity. In Korea, water droppers took many imaginative forms and their decoration often included auspicious emblems of Chinese origin, such as bats, which represent good fortune. The peach-shaped dropper here, with its copper-red decoration, is a particularly fine example; peaches are an emblem of longevity.
- Maker/Artist
- Maker Unknown
- Classification
- Ceramic
- Formatted Medium
- Porcelain with cobalt blue underglaze decoration
- Medium
- porcelain, cobalt, blue, underglaze, decoration
- Locations
- Place made: Korea
- Dynasty
- Joseon dynasty
- Period
- Joseon period
- Dimensions
- Height: 1 3/4 in. (4.4 cm) Diameter at mouth: 3 9/16 in. (9.1 cm) Diameter at base: 2 5/8 in. (6.7 cm)
- Departments
- Asian Art
- Accession Number
- 85.114.4
- Credit Line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Roger Elliot and Mr. and Mrs. Jack Ford in memory of Jean Alexander
- Exhibitions
- Arts of Korea
- Rights Statement
- Creative Commons-BY
- Museum Location
- Asian Galleries, South, 2nd floor
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