Bowl with Inlaid Waterfowl, Willow, and Reed Design

About this artwork

As early as the seventh century, the practice of drinking tea and wine became an important part of elite leisure culture in Korea. A wide bowl like this example was especially suitable for drinking powdered tea shaved from a compressed tea cake, the most commonly enjoyed type during the Goryeo period. The inlaid image of ducks under willow trees on the inner wall of this tea bowl may have made the moment of drinking tea much enjoyable.