Korean Teacups?

[hopeofdawn]

I got these a while back, and I thought I'd share with the forum, see what people had to say about them. These cups were an Ebay find, advertised as Korean celadon. They came from a dealer who seemed to specialize in miscellaneous bits of American vintage tools and hardware and the like, so there's no provenance for them other than the box they came in. On the other hand, they *did* come with a box, unlike most other loose teaware out there. It's cardboard, with a paper covering, and has Korean characters and a seal on the top that sadly, I can't read ....





The cups themselves have an interesting glaze--a gray-green celadon (maybe?) over a rusty orange-red clay, near as I can tell. They also appear to have the classic buncheong rope-pattern, though admittedly I'm no expert. (my apologies for the poor lighting)







Neither has an artist signature or seal, though they're both pretty well made, with thin walls--not sure how vintage or valuable they might or might not be, though. At a guess, maybe these cups were a random souvenir purchase someone brought back from a trip to Korea? Or am I completely off the mark on this?

[brandon]

Hi,
The Japanese named this style Mishima when they started copying it. The original Korean bowl was called Punch’ong, like this.

[hopeofdawn]

Hi,
The Japanese named this style Mishima when they started copying it. The original Korean bowl was called Punch’ong, like this.

Thanks for the info, Brandon. In my reading, I've seen it spelled both bun-cheong, buncheong, and pun'cheong (and other derivations)--any idea what might be most correct?

And any idea whether these cups are Mishima copies of the traditional Korean style, or actually Korean? I have another bowl that is (I'm told) Mishima-style, and looked at quite a few others, but most of the ones I've seen seem to focus more on patterned flowerlike designs, and less the rope patterns like in your example above. Obviously I'll still enjoy the cups either way--it's just kind of fun to try and figure out their true origins.

[TIM]

http://www.korean-arts.com/about/bun-ch ... st_art.htm

This is quite an accurate history of pun'cheong.

http://leeum.samsungfoundation.org/html ... n/main.asp

http://pandastic.tistory.com/m/908

[Tead Off]

Hi,
The Japanese named this style Mishima when they started copying it. The original Korean bowl was called Punch’ong, like this.

Thanks for the info, Brandon. In my reading, I've seen it spelled both bun-cheong, buncheong, and pun'cheong (and other derivations)--any idea what might be most correct?

And any idea whether these cups are Mishima copies of the traditional Korean style, or actually Korean? I have another bowl that is (I'm told) Mishima-style, and looked at quite a few others, but most of the ones I've seen seem to focus more on patterned flowerlike designs, and less the rope patterns like in your example above. Obviously I'll still enjoy the cups either way--it's just kind of fun to try and figure out their true origins.

Buncheong is usually how it's spelled these days. The cups look Korean to me.

[hopeofdawn]

Thanks for the info, Tim and Tead--it lines up with what I've read, but it's always nice to have more data to work with.