Desirable commodities — unearthing and collecting Koryŏ celadon ceramics in the late

nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

Author(s): Charlotte Horlyck
Source: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London ,
2013, Vol. 76, No. 3 (2013), pp. 467-491
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of School of Oriental and African
Studies
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Bulletin of SOAS, 76, 3 (2013)，467-491. © School of Oriental and African Studies, 2013.
doi: 10.1017/S0041977X13000906

Desirable commodities - unearthing and

collecting Koryo celadon ceramics in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
Charlotte Horlyck*
SOAS，University of London
chlO@[Link]

Abstract

In Korea green-glazed celadon ceramics were manufactured during the

Koryo kingdom (ad 918-1392)，but by the end of the fourteenth century
their manufacture ceased and they virtually disappeared from view until
the 1880s when they began to be unearthed from tombs and other sites.
This led to increased interest in them from Koreans, and especially the
Japanese, Americans and Europeans. Focusing on British collections,
this article outlines the collecting practices of Korean celadon wares
from the time of their discovery in the 1880s to the market boom of the
1910s, culminating in the decrease in their availability in the 1930s. It
will be argued that the desire for celadon wares was socially conditioned
and that celadon were collected for a range of different, though not un
related reasons, ranging from collectors' pursuit of unique Korean art
works, to their want of genuine antiquities and aesthetic perfection.
Keywords: Korea, Koryo, Colonial, Celadon, Collecting, Museum

Introduction

When the Japanese forced Hunsong Taewon'gun (1820-98) to sign the

Kanghwa Treaty in 1876，the Choson kingdom's (ad 1392-1910) policy of iso
lationism effectively ended as Korea was propelled into the international arena.
Following the establishment of trade and diplomatic relations with Japan, similar
treaties were established with Western nations. In 1882 a treaty was signed
between Korea and the United States; it was soon followed by treaties with
Britain, Germany and other European countries.1

* I would like to thank Anna Contadini, Charles Gore, George Manginis and the two anon
ymous reviewers for their insights and comments on earlier versions of the text. Chihiro
Sasaki graciously helped translate the Japanese sources. All errors are, of course, my
own. This research was facilitated by the generous support from Korea Foundation
and the Academy of Korean Studies (KSPS) Grant funded by the Korean Government
(MOE) (AKS-2011 -BAA-2104).
Korean and Japanese names appear with surnames listed first, except in the case of
authors with publications in English. Since many Korean surnames are identical, Korean
names appear in full in all references. The Romanization follows the McCune-Reischauer
system for Korean，and the Hepburn system for Japanese.
1 A Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Korea and the United States, known as "the
Shufeldt Treaty", was signed in 1882. Treaties followed with Britain and Germany in
November 1883，Italy and Russia in 1884, France in 1886 and subsequently with

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468 CHARLOTTEHORLYCK

The formation of trade and diplomatic relations betwe

outside of East Asia brought about important and irreve
Korea as it was no longer able to cocoon itself in the wa
forced instead to respond to a changing world order. Un
about the "Hermit Kingdom".2 However, over the cours
and early twentieth centuries a growing number of We
elsewhere on the peninsula. Some took up positions at th
government officials or physicians, while others wor
aries, doctors and hoteliers, among other profession
choose the peninsula as an exciting travel destinatio
accounts of what they saw and experienced in the
added to the rising number of contemporary volume
tory and customs.3 Some of these volumes included d
amics and other artefacts, which began to attract the at
and museum curators and marked the beginning of the
lecting of Korea's cultural heritage.
During the 1880s and 1890s interest in Korean arte
objects surfaced, were studied, and were better underst
conception that only the Japanese were interested in Ko
Diaries and other accounts from the late nineteent
Americans and Europeans sourced many pieces, too.
Japanese and Westerners focused primarily on cela
Koryo period (ad 918-1392)，which became sought-a
the course of the early twentieth century. Celadon c
factured in Korea during the tenth century, but their pr
in the closing decades of the Koryo rule. As white porce
the elite of the new Choson kingdom, the production of
until the Colonial period (191045)，when the Japan
"new Koryo kilns" (Shin Koryoso 新高麗燒)where co
ations of Koryo celadon were made.4
The preference for celadon ceramics remains t
Collecting as practice is often seen as "a basic urge",
the motives which lie behind the predilection f

Austria, Denmark and Belgium. Keith Pratt and Richard R

Cultural Dictionary (Surrey: Curzon Press, 1999)，496-7.
2 The name "Hermit Kingdom" first appeared in the article
Nations", The Independent, New York, May 1878. Since th
used as a sobriquet for Korea, including in William Elliot
Nation (New York: Scribner's Sons, 1882). Pratt and Rutt,
3 Writings on Korea by early travellers, diplomats and others a
For a good summary, see Martin Uden, Times Past in Korea
See also Brother Anthony's list of ‘‘old books" on Korea: h
anthony/[Link] [accessed 21 Jan. 2013]. For a discu
ings on Korea, see Susan House Wade, "Representing colo
visual imagery in England 1910-1939" (PhD thesis, Univers
4 Eum Sung-hee [Om Song-hui], "Ilche sigi chaehan ilbon
production of Koryo celadon by Japanese residing in Kore
Han 'guk kundae misulsahak 13，2004，175-7.

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 UNEARTHING AND COLLECTING KORYO CELADON CERAMICS 469

others.5 Rather, the collecting of artefacts is driven by a range

impetuses, some planned, others impulsive, but all framed by th
social, historical and economic conditions of a specific time and
will here be argued that the avid collecting of Korean celadon c
not a chance phenomenon. The objects were initially hard to co
was illegal to desecrate the tombs in which they were found. Als
of Korean art was at its infancy, making information on ceramics d
access. Furthermore, when Japan and the West descended upon th
there were other artworks, which could be sourced more easily.
the 1910s, celadon ceramics had become desirable collectibles. A
qualities they were celebrated for their beauty, their uniqueness and
quarian references. It will here be argued that such qualities are
to celadon but culturally manufactured and socially conditioned.7
cance of the collecting of celadon lies in the aggregation of its relate
and outcomes. The interest in and acquisition of celadon among t
the Americans, the Europeans as well as the Koreans betray diff
times overlapping ideas of Korea, its past and present, and they
come to shape later perceptions and understandings of Korean art an
Questions concerning the date of the first discovery of celadon
ways in which they surfaced and became collectors' items, and th
those who acquired them, have long been intertwined with narrative
and post-colonial historiography, making it difficult to gain a clear pi
parameters at play. The commercial, aesthetic and antiquarian values
were appropriated through different, though not necessarily separat
and it indicates a system of appreciation that was constantly in flux
outlines the collecting practices and art market trends of Koryo
their discovery in the 1880s to the market boom in the 1910s, cu
the decrease in availability in the 1930s. By then celadon were lar
to be among the best, most beautiful and most uniquely Korean artw
found on the peninsula. Even today, celadon ceramics are regarded as
highlights of Korean cultural heritage both within and outside Korea
lowing pages explore factors that directly and indirectly influenced th

5 Sharon Macdonald, "Collecting practices", in Sharon Macdonald (ed.), A C

Museum Studies (Maiden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006), 81.
6 Macdonald, "Collecting practices", 83; James Clifford, "On collecting art
in Nicholas Mirzoeff (ed.), The Visual Culture Reader (London and
Routledge, 1998), 94-107.
7 Elizabeth Hallam and Brian V. Street, "Visualising 'otherness'", in Cultura
Representing Otherness (London and New York: Routledge, 2000), 29.
8 Celadon wares are always included in volumes published by the Nation
Korea featuring highlights of the collection, such as Kungnip chung'ang pa
Kungnip chung 'ang pangmulgwan 100-sdn (100 highlights from the Nat
of Korea) (Kyonggi-do P'aju-si: An Gurap'iksu, 2006). Displays of such
formed an important component of major international exhibitions of Kor
heritage sponsored by the South Korean government, such as Masterpiec
Art, which toured the USA in 1957-58, Korean Art Treasures, which wa
the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1961，and Treasures from Korea, wh
the British Museum in 1984. Charlotte Horlyck and Sascha Priewe, “
Korean artefacts in the UK", Museum & Society (forthcoming).

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470 CHARLOTTE HOR LYC K

practices of different groups of people, including the desire f

objects, the availability of ceramics and the value attached
bygone era. The discussion concentrates on British col
since interest in and scholarship on Korean art developed a
tory in the USA, references to select American collectors and
included.

In search of "Koreanness"

There are no records from late nineteenth-century collectors stating why they
oped a liking for Korean celadon. Therefore, the motives behind their preferen
what were, at the time, relatively unknown pieces of art are obscure. Howev
travelogues and articles by Americans and Europeans suggest that at around
time a major impetus lay in the search for “things Korean". When foreigners a
on the peninsula, they often wished to acquire mementos of their visit. How
many failed to find anything of interest, not least because they rarely knew
to look for. Volumes on Korean art were few as it was not until 1929 that the
first study devoted exclusively to Korea's cultural heritage was published in the
West. Written by the Benedictine missionary Andreas Eckardt (1884-1974), it
covered all aspects of art, from architecture to Buddhist sculpture, and also included
a section on Koryo ceramics.9 Prior to this some authors had made mention
of Korea's cultural traditions, one of the earliest being Louise Jordan Miln
(1864-1933), but their discussions tended to be vague and at times misguided.10
In many writings Korean artefacts were dismissed as lacking in artistic merit,
leaving museum curators with the challenge of how to expand their Korean col
lections with good pieces of art. When Thomas Walters (1841-1901), who
worked in the Consular Service in Seoul, donated an inlaid lacquer chest,
tobacco boxes and items of embroidery to the Victoria and Albert Museum
(hereafter V&A) in 1888，a museum official noted that: “The items are of little
importance or value". In an effort to expand the Museum's Korean collection,
the objects were nevertheless acquired.11

9 Andreas Eckardt, A History of Korean Art (London and Leipzig: Edward Goldston and
Karl W. Hiersemann, 1929).
10 In a chapter entitled “A glance at Korean art", Miln examines typical Korean artefacts,
including ceramics, lacquerwares and bronzes, and discusses characteristic patterns.
Much of Miln's text was drawn from Percival Lowell, Choson: the Land of the
Morning Calm. A Sketch of Korea (Boston: Tickner, 1886). Lowell wrote the book
after spending the winter of 1883-84 in Korea. Miln also relied on notes given to her
by her friend Mrs. Q. who, according to Miln, "had the unique experience of seeing
Korea". Louise Jordan Miln, Quaint Korea (London: Osgood, Mcllvaine & Co.,
1895)，9-10，209-25. The Frenchman Maurice Courant's (1865-1935) numerous
works on Korea should also be mentioned here. Among his many publications relevant
to this study is Souvenir de Seoul, Coree (Paris: Publisher unknown, 1900) in which he
makes brief mention of Korean artworks. It is noteworthy that ceramics are the only
pre-nineteenth-century artefacts that he includes in the volume. However, he only
describes them in vague terms, indicating how little was known about them at this
time. Courant, Souvenir de Seoul, v.
11 Liz Wilkinson, "Collecting Korean art at the Victoria and Albert Museum 1888-1938",
Journal of the History of Collections 15/2, 2003, 243.

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 UNEARTHING AND COLLECTING KORYO CELADON CERAMICS 471

The Scotswoman Constance J. D. Coulson (1868-1948)，who tr

Korea several times around the turn of the twentieth century, was o
Westerners to be enamoured with Korean goods. She found that
plenty of interesting purchases to be made: "The shops are full o
gauzes in the prettiest colours, of ribbons, of strings of coral
which are used as hat-strings; of cabinets and boxes, in black lacquer,
ted with mother-of-pearl, or covered with lacquer in brilliant green
Several such items were acquired by Western museums, includi
and the British Museum (hereafter BM), in the late nineteenth and ea
tieth centuries, often by individuals charged with the task of collect
local objects.13 In 1912，the growing interest in Korean arts led
send C. H. Wylde, a curator in the Ceramic Department, on a bu
Seoul, where he purchased several pieces of textiles, furniture
ceramics.14
The fact that few things seemed to be uniquely Korean in char
crucial. Ink paintings were generally thought to look very simila
ones, although inferior in quality.15 Westerners, including Carles, of
up buying contemporary iron tobacco boxes as they were, in Car
“[t]he only distinctly native article" available for purchase at t
Other objects that were considered to be characteristically Korean an
able quality were wooden cabinets and brassware, also of contemporar
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the V&A a
acquired several such artefacts, including wooden chests and a la
of brass articles, ranging from bowls to chopsticks and candlesticks.1
lenge facing collectors and curators was that the majority of the art
able for purchase in Korea were of an ethnographic nature, lea
curators to acquire them reluctantly.19 In contrast, celadon ceramics
out as genuinely Korean artworks on a par with anything produced i
Japan, leading some to proclaim them as the sole great product
therefore worth collecting.
The problem was how to define “good art". Initially Westerner
judgements made by the Japanese on what constituted good

12 Constance J. D. Coulson, Korea. Peeps at Many Lands (London: Adam

Black, 1910), 35-6.
13 Wade, "Representing colonial Korea", 29.
14 Lisa Bailey and Liz Wilkinson, "Korean art in the Victoria and Albert Mu
Culture 18 (Spring 1997)，5.
15 H. S. Saunderson, "Korea and its people", The Journal of the Anthropologica
Great Britain and Ireland 24, 1895, 312; F. S. K., "Korean pottery", Muse
Arts Bulletin 9，no. 54 (December 1911)，63.
16 He acquired one such box, which, along with paper samples and ginseng
donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford in the late nineteenth century
Carles, Life in Corea (London: Macmillan and Co., 1888), 37. See also
"Collecting Korean art", 244.
17 George G. Gilmore, Corea of Today (London: T. Nelson and Sons, 1894)
Angus Hamilton, Korea; Its History, Its People, and Its Commerce (Bosto
J. B. Millet Co., 1910), 29.
18 Wilkinson, ‘‘Collecting Korean art", 244.
19 Wilkinson, "Collecting Korean art", 244.

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472 CHARLOTTE HORLYCK

Several Western accounts from the late nineteenth and early twent
make mention of how highly the Japanese valued celadon wares
ogist Pierre Louis Jouy (1856-94) wrote that: “These pieces [K
wares], to which a remote antiquity was ascribed, were held i
by Japanese connoisseurs".20 Similarly, the American missiona
and later diplomat Horace N. Allen (1858-1932) stated that in the lat
century celadon wares were in demand in Japan, where they we
prices.21 This suggests that many Western scholars and collect
aware of Japanese collecting practices.22 The Japanese had for c
a keen interest in Korean ceramics, largely due to their fond
wares.23 Their preference for Korean bowls dates back to the fifte
teenth centuries when punch 'dng stonewares of the early Cho
became popular among the tea-drinking Japanese elite, leading t
to Japan. The sixteenth-century invasions of the Korean penins
Japanese warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-98) have even bee
"pottery wars" by contemporary art historians, due to the large nu
ters who were forcibly brought to Japan to set up kilns there.
understandable that the Japanese developed an interest in celad
the wares began to surface.
Westerners' appreciation of celadon wares was also informed b
Koreans, especially after the opening of the Imperial Museum o
pangmulgwan 帝室博物館）in 1909, which will be discussed fu
However, it is unclear to what extent Koreans took an active in
study and collecting of celadon and other local artworks in the late
century. A comment made by the scholar Yu Kil-chun 兪吉濬
in Observations on Travels in the West (Sdyugydnmun 西遊見
that some Koreans took great pride in Koryo celadon ceramics.
"Koryo celadon are famous in the world" and likened them to

20 Pierre Louis Jouy, The Collection of Korean Mortuary Pottery in t

Museum. Smithsonian Annual Report (Washington: US National Museu
Jouy was an employee of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. H
eral ceramics, religious objects, textiles and other artefacts for the muse
ited Korea in the early 1880s. Chang-su Cho Houchins, An Ethnography
Kingdom. The J. B. Bernadou Korean Collection 1884—85 (Washington
Institution, 2004), 18-9.
21 Horace Allen arrived in Korea in December 1884 as he had been summoned to care for
those injured in the Kapsin Coup. Later he became US Minister and Consul General in
Seoul. Horace N. Allen, Things Korean. A Collection of Sketches and Anecdotes
Missionary and Diplomatic (London and New York: Fleming H. Revell Company,
1908), 210-11. ‘ “
22 For some the sharing of kno
American collector and found
1919) became a close friend
(1848-1938)，both of whom
Gompertz, "The study and ap
Kankoku bijutsu shusen (Mast
Tokyo Press, 1978), 422.
23 Ito Yasuburo and Nishimura
and Nishimura Shotaro, 1910)

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 UNEARTHING AND COLLECTING KOR YO CELADON CERAMICS 473

Korean achievements, such as the invention of metal movable type printi

Whether Yu's statement was informed by the collecting practices o
Japanese and Westerners, or by Koreans, is not known. Around th
Japanese collectors seem to have greatly outnumbered local collecto
some Koreans from privileged backgrounds did acquire celadon piece
late nineteenth century. King Kojong (r. 1863-1907) offered a celadon
the above-mentioned Horace N. Allen in gratitude for having saved th
Min Yong-ik 閔泳翔(1860-1914)，the queen's nephew, in 1885.2
later noted that this was the most highly prized article that the court co
sent to him, though he was himself not at first very fond of it. Yet, it
have spurred his interest in Korean ceramics and he eventually built
stantial collection while he resided in Seoul.26 It may have been the royal
that Louise Jordan Miln referred to when she wrote in 1895 that: "Koreans
highly all sorts of crackle ware [celadon ceramics], and have been ex
fancy, in its manufacture by no other".27
By the 1910s Eastern as well as Western collectors had firmly esta
Koryo celadon as the best, most beautiful and most distinctively Korean p
available on the peninsula, as stated in an article published in the B
Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin in 1911:

Like Korean painting, sculpture, and architecture, [Korean pottery] had

source in China and passed on its tradition to Japan; but unlike t
greater arts, pottery making in Korea developed in its own way, growi
into something rich and quite different from anything produced in Ch
and teaching Japan everything but its own beauty. In other words, we
in Korean pottery of the best period [Koryo] a distinctively Kore
expression of taste and skill.28

The view that Koryo celadon surpassed other types of Korean cerami
was shared by British collectors and museum officials. In 1918 the V&A c
Bernard Rackham stated that: "All the best pottery found in Corea dates fr
period of the Korai dynasty".29

Yu Kil-chun, annotated by Ho Kyong-chin, Soyugyonmun (Observations on tr

the West) (Kyonggi-do P'aju-si: Sohae munjip, 2004)，402. Yu wrote Soyugy
around 1889，but the volume was not published until 1895.
Edward B. Adams, Korea's Pottery Heritage, Vol. II (Seoul: Seoul Intern
Publishing House, 1990), 101-3. See also, Kungnip chung，ang pangmulgwan,
Han 'guk misul ul mannada (Korean Art from the United States) (Seoul: N
Museum of Korea, 2012), 2.
On first seeing the dish, Allen felt it looked like “quite ordinary chinaware
Things Korean, 211-2. The dish is likely to be the one illustrated in Walter
who states that it was given by "the King of Korea to Dr. Allen". Walter Hou
Bemadou, Allen and Jouy Corean Collections in the United States National M
From the Report of the U.S. National Museum, 1891 (Washington: Gover
Printing, 1893), 437.
Miln, Quaint Korea, 212.
F. S. K., "Korean pottery", 63.
222 789 Bernard Rackham, Catalogue of the Le Blond Collection of Corean Pottery (L
H.M. Stationeary Office, 1918), 4.

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474 CHARLOTTEHORLYCK

Looking for difference

As the quote from the Boston Museum of Fine Art
parisons with Chinese and Japanese art were a cruc
uniqueness of Korean celadon. Over the course of t
especially interested in differences between Korean
wares. This shift was rooted in the changing tastes a
of Chinese ceramics. In 1929 the Japanese archaeolo
Ryosaku 藤田亮策(1892-1960) argued that for Eur
tious Ming (1368—1644) and Qing (1644-1912) por
and Yuan (1279-1368) stonewares seemed "pure
According to Fujita, Koryo celadon were also
desirable qualities and were for this reason collecte
the shift in interest towards Song and Yuan ceram
exhibition of Early Chinese Pottery and Porcel
Burlington Fine Arts Club (hereafter BFAC) in
authors of the BFAC catalogue wrote of the piec
restrained tints cannot fail to appeal to lovers of C
time, eighteenth-century Chinese porcelains, popular
collectors, were regarded as decadent and comm
Song ceramics, which were associated with purity an
lectable.33 The shift in collectors' interests coincides
tion with Koryo celadon during the 1910s among art
curators based in Korea, Japan, the United States and
the new taste for Song and Yuan stonewares promot
wares too, partially since comparisons with Song and
a way to pinpoint unique characteristics of Koryo w
description of Koryo celadon bowls, Raphael Petruc
...seems to be different from that found in ... S
pieces, it is heavier in itself and more heavily model
approaches helped to understand what made Koryo c
that will be explored later.

30 Fujita was professor at the Keijo [Seoul] Imperial Unive

京城帝国大学）and became director of the Museum of th
Korea (Choson Ch'ongdokpu pangmulgwan 朝鮮總督府博
Ryosaku, "Obei no hakubutsukan to Chosen (ge)’，(
America (part 2), Chosen 164，1929, 28. For a discussion
work on the Korean peninsula, see Hyung II Pai, "The p
legacy of Japanese colonial archaeology in the Korean pen
7 (June 1994), 42-3. —
31 Stacey Pierson, Collectors, Collections and Museums. The Field of Chinese Ceramics in
Britain 1560-1960 (New York and Vienna: Peter Lang, 2007), 89-94.
32 Burlington Fine Arts Club, Catalogue of an Exhibition of Early Chinese Pottery and
Porcelain (London: Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1911), xviii, quoted in Pierson,
Collectors, Collections and Museums, 94.
33 Pierson, Collectors, Collections and Museums, 97.
34 Raphael Petrucci, ‘‘Corean pottery", The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 22, no.
116 (November 1912), 87.

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 UNEARTHING AND COLLECTING KORY0 CELADON CERAMICS 475

Scholarship on Korean celadon ceramics also increased at this time.

Chinese art collectors studies of Korean celadon aided understand
Chinese ceramics. For this reason, wares from China and Korea w
displayed alongside one another.36 For example, an exhibition of Son
stonewares held in New York in 1914 also featured around fifty Kor
wares.37 This approach led some collectors of Chinese art, includ
Eumorfopoulos (1863-1939), to purchase Korean ceramics as well.
Koryo celadon were shown alongside early Chinese ceramics in the E
Exhibition of Chinese Art, which opened at the V&A in 1936 (Figure

In pursuit of antiquity
Koryo celadon were thus validated as being uniquely Korean products
it was their antiquarian references as "mortuary wares" that cemented
as objets d 'art from the time when they were first discovered in Kory
through our interpretations of the past that artefacts are ascribed partic
cultural or artistic "authenticity". Antiques are generally attributed a
poral "depth" and, for this reason, the collecting of objects from an
tions is widely regarded as being more rewarding than the
contemporary things. Moreover it is typically objects of cultural
value that may be promoted to the status of fine art, as was the case
Korea was recognized as an ancient nation with a long history: this
apparent in writings published from the late nineteenth century on
were captivated by the notion of Korea as a country where time stoo
where past customs and ways of life had been preserved for cen
matched the widespread image of the "Hermit Kingdom" and fue
tion with the peninsula.40 A prominent characteristic of the Korean
were the numerous tomb mounds that dotted the hillsides. The p
frequently described as a vast graveyard, with burial mounds and
of varying age and archaeological interest.41 From the time the

The bibliography in Rackham's volume on the Le Blond collection of Ko

offers a good indication of published scholarship on Korean ceramic histor
1910s. Rackham, Catalogue of the Le Blond Collection，vii-viii.
John Piatt noted that: "The Korean tomb finds are worthy of the most care
can help a great deal in our understanding of the early Chinese ware".
"Korean pottery", The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 36，n
1920)，203. See also John Piatt, "Ancient Korean tomb wares", The
Magazine for Connoisseurs 22，no. 116 (November 1912), 230.
R. L. Hobson, "Sung and Yuan wares in a New York exhibition", The
Magazine for Connoisseurs 24，no. 132 (March 1914)，320-23.
Horlyck and Priewe, "Displaying Korean artefacts".
Clifford, "On collecting art and culture", 100.
3 34 789o This was noted by Walter Hough, who wrote that: "Great interest centers i
the fact that we have there a human exemplification of the survival of the wh
industries and customs, while in surrounding regions these have been sw
transformed." Hough, The Bernadou, Allen and Jouy Corean Collections
Jouy, Collection of Korean Mortuary Pottery, 589. Jouy's views were later
Randolph I. Geare in "The potter's art in Korea", The Craftsman VII, no.
1904)，294-8.

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476 CHARLOTTE HORLYCK

Figure 1. Display of Koryo celadon in the Eumorfopoulos Exhib

Art, at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1936. (After V&A A
File: Mr and Mrs George Eumorfopoulos.) © Victoria and Albert

discovered and collected, celadon ceramics were known to have b

from ancient graves and were referred to as "tomb" or "mortuar
early writings.42 The persistent use of such terms suggest
attached great significance to the tomb origins of celadon war
to celadon as "mortuary wares", collectors branded them a
so doing separated them from lower quality artefacts of Choso
ary times. In highlighting the historical value of celadon ceram
cated the wares as collectibles and by association labelled t
authentic and erstwhile collectors. The practice of referrin
tomb wares was common until the 1940s but by the 1970s i
from scholarly writings, marking a significant shift towards
celadon as art objects, rather than as mortuary wares.43 By th

42 A case in point is Piatt, “Ancient Korean tomb wares，，.

43 In 1979, the South Korean government sent a large-scale exhibition
of Korean Art on a tour of the United States. The exhibition catalogue

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 UNEARTHING AND COLLECTING K0RY6 CELADON CERAMICS 477

ceramics were established as desirable objects and it was no longer

promote their antique connotations. They were largely seen a
within museum contexts and, as a result, the historicities o
were reconfigured and their past roles as tomb goods became less
It is not known exactly when the first discoveries of celadon w
but written accounts suggest that it was in the 1880s. In 18
Vice-Consul William R. Carles (1848-1928) published the f
how celadon were removed from graves near Kaesong, where m
Koryo royal family were buried. He writes: "In the winter after
S[e]oul [in 1884-85] I succeeded in purchasing a few pieces, p
thirty-six, which were said to have been taken out of some l
Songdo [Kaesong]".44 The majority of the acquired pieces
wares, some of which were decorated with sanggam inlay (Fig
that they were largely unknown at the time is evidenced by C
belief that the inlaid motifs were made up of a "series of irregul
ments of quartz or porcelain, which must have been imbedded in
the baking".45 In reality, the inlaid patterns were created by filli
motif with slip.
The discoveries of Koryo tombs in the 1880s are also refer
British collector and amateur archaeologist William Gowland
who wrote that "cream-coloured glazed" wares - this being a
term for Koryo celadon at this time 一 were being unearthed
Kaesong.46 The speed at which these artefacts became collectib
is remarkable considering very little was known of Korea's ce
when they were first discovered. It is telling that Gowland does no
to date the glazed wares he saw, merely saying that ‘‘a great age i
them] by the Koreans".47
Over the course of the late nineteenth and early twentieth cent
increasing number of celadon wares were unearthed and sold with
Korea, culminating in the boom of the celadon art marke
Many tomb goods surfaced following the end of the Russo-Ja

of celadon having been used as tomb goods, nor did it refer to how or w
collectors' items. In contrast, the catalogue of an earlier travelling exhi
art, Masterpieces of Korean Art, also sponsored by South Korea, noted t
don was buried with its owners and recovered only in this century, mo
hysteria of surreptitious digging in the ten thousand graves of the Kae
the first decades of the 20th century”. National Gallery of Art
Masterpieces of Korean Art: An Exhibition under the Auspices of the
the Republic of Korea (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art [et
For comparison see, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 5,000 Year
(San Francisco: Asian Art Museum, 1979).
44 Carles, Life in Corea, 139. Carles purchased two ewers, a meibydng pr
a dish, two cups and two cup stands.
45 Carles, Life in Corea, 14(M>1.
46 Gowland resided in Japan between 1872 and 1888 and worked for the
Mint. William Gowland, "Notes on the dolmens and other antiquities of
of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 24，1895,
47 Gowland, "Dolmens and other antiquities of Korea", 322.

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478 CHARLOTTE HORLYCK

w
-]HV

^ Wr
Figure 2. Celadon ceramics purchased by Carles. After Wil
in Corea (London: Macmillan and Co., 1888)，140-1.

1904-05, when new roads and railways were constructed on

the early twentieth century the Japanese acquired the parti
way between Seoul and Sinuiju, located 40 km from the
River that borders Korea and China, from French and Am
they completed it in 1905. The project was driven by the
stronghold on the peninsula. Furthermore, the railway of
means to gain access to Manchuria and Russia. The fact that
Kaesong is not insignificant, as it seems to have led to accid
the well-furnished royal and aristocratic tombs located there. B
become common knowledge that the richest graves with th
those situated in the mountains surrounding Kaesong.49
Wares continued to surface into the 1930s and even the 19
of 1935 a considerable stir was caused among scholars a
"freshly excavated" wares were said to have come from is
near the city of Kaesong.50 Numerous Chinese porcelains o
including Ding wares, were reported as having been plund
the area, particularly on Yongmaedo, the largest island in th
ing to rumour at least one-hundred tombs from the Koryo

48 Godfrey St. G. M. Gompertz, Korean Celadon and Other Wares

(London: Faber and Faber, 1963)，14.
49 This is mentioned by Western and Japanese authors. See, for ex
Korean tomb wares", 229; Rackham, Catalogue of the Le Blond
Nishimura, Koryii-shd, 2.
50 Okudaira Takehiko, "Chosen shutsudo no shina tojiki zakken，，
of Chinese porcelain in Korea), Tdji IX，no. 2 (May 1937)，1-11
Gompertz, “Gilded wares of Sung and Koryo. I. Gilded Sung wa
Magazine 98，no. 642 (September 1956), 300-03.

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 UNEARTHING AND COLLECTING KORY0 CELADON CERAMICS 479

there. They were most likely built for the aristocrats and traders who liv
region.51 However, by the time they surfaced, the colonial governm
issued stringent preservation and export laws, as discussed further belo
ing it impossible to export the wares legally. Instead, it seems that the
entered the collection of the Museum of the Government-General of Korea.52

Appropriating the past

From the time when international scholarship on Korea's past and present began
in the late nineteenth century, research developed into its past kingdoms and
rulers, as well as significant historical events and cultural sites. By the 1910s
an increasingly detailed picture of Korea's history had emerged. However, not
all past eras were assigned equal worth, with some being valued more highly
than others. William Gowland was one of the few collectors who paid attention
to prehistoric Korean artefacts.53 His archaeological interest in Japan and his
belief that Korea was "the point of departure from the mainland of the
Japanese race"54 led him to travel to the peninsula, and in 1884 he journeyed
from Seoul to Pusan. He was interested mainly in stonewares of the Three
Kingdoms period (trad. 57 bc-ad 668), several of which he excavated and col
lected. They were later acquired by S. W. Franks, who donated them to the
British Museum where he was a Keeper of Antiquities.55 Another early collector
of Three Kingdoms ceramics was Edward Sylvester Morse (1838-1925) who,
like Gowland, was interested in making connections between prehistoric
Japan and Korea.56 However, they were exceptions. Most collectors of
Korean art only had eyes for celadon ceramics. Though Three Kingdoms stone
wares pre-date Koryo celadon and therefore were in principle of higher historical
value, most collectors did not value them in such a manner.
Writings by early Western and Japanese collectors suggest that the Koryo
kingdom represented a bygone, once glorious, era. Many writers lamented the
state of the Korean peninsula in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
criticizing its lazy population, the lack of progress in manufacturing and the
absence of originality in the arts, among other faults. Choson Korea was widely
regarded as a drowsy backwater that was slipping into decline because of its
inability to modernize.57 The 500 years of Choson rule offered little that was

51 Okudaira, "Chosen shutsudo no shina tojiki zakken", 1-11; Charlotte Horlyck, "Gilded
celadon wares of the Koryo kingdom (918-1392 ce)，’，Artibus Asiae LXXII，no. 1，2012，
118. “ 。
52 Several of the objects are illustrated i
toja (Chinese ceramics) (Seoul: Nationa
53 Jane Portal, ‘‘Korean ceramics in th
Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic S
54 Gowland, "Dolmens and other antiquit
55 Portal, "Korean ceramics in the British
of the British Museum's Korean collect
Korea Branch 70，1995, 42-^4.
56 Morse's Korean ceramics are now in the
pangmulgwan, Han ’guk misul ul mannad
57 This view reflected the trope of colon

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480 CHARLOTTEHORLYCK

worth celebrating and its art was therefore largely ove

In contrast, the Koryo kingdom was heralded as the bes
ing in Korea.59 Therefore, celadon came to represent a
revived (given the poor state of the country), but
through appropriation. The antiquarian merits of th
through a romanticized image of a once-glorious kin
with its art, much like Atlantis. The fact that they had
ground for hundreds of years enhanced their appeal.
The notion that Korean society went into decline afte
particularly popular among Japanese scholars, as it fitte
of the impossibility of independent Korean developmen
view of Korea was the belief that Korean people were
other, more powerful, nations. Historians supported the
ences to historical events, highlighting that Korea h
country but had repeatedly been invaded as well as colo
states. Japan's colonization of Korea was therefore s
table outcome of Korean identity, its history and geo
the successes of earlier periods, including the arts,
thus juxtaposed with current failures. This served to
role as the protector of Korean art and the ultimate sav
This view is reiterated in one of the earliest published J
logues of Koryo celadon, in which the authors state tha
that the Korean social situation is deteriorating. It is su
of this Korean race successfully produced the finest art
We Japanese have to introduce such a hidden beauty act

Defining beauty
The collecting of artefacts is often driven by a pursuit
beauty and, in addition to their uniquely Korean charac
references, Korean celadon presented an aesthetic appeal
larity. In a discussion of his Chinese ceramics, Georg
up his collecting attitude as follows: “Archaeological

58 For example, in 1884 the Smithsonian attache John Baptis

F. Baird, Director of the National Museum, Washington D.C.,
Choson period were coarse and that "there are no living
Houchins, Ethnography of the Hermit Kingdom, 144-5.
59 F. S. K.'s statement that the "best period of pottery-makin
[Koryo] kings ... and ended with them" was common in w
1920s. F. S. K., "Korean pottery", 63. For similar view
Warner, "Korean grave pottery of the Korai dynasty", Th
Museum of Art 6/3 (April 1919), 460; and Eckardt, History
60 Kim Brandt, "Objects of desire: Japanese collectors and co
Asia Cultures Critique 8/3 (Winter 2000), 736.
61 Park So-hyon, "Koryo chagi nun ot'ok'e 'misul' i toeonn
chagi yolgwang' kwa Yi wangga pangmulgwan ui chongj
became 'Art': Koryo celadon mania and politics of the
Colonial period), Sahoe ydn'gu 11，2006，18.
62 Ito and Nishimura, Kdryu-sho, 5.

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 UNEARTHING AND COLLECTING KORYO CELADON CERAMICS 481

never induced me to acquire an object: to enter my collection it was indi

ble that it should at the same time appeal to me aesthetically in som
another".63 There is little doubt that collectors of Korean art shared his
While the grouping of artefacts into typologies presupposes some n
permanence, the definitions of those typologies are temporal. In t
way, although the object of beauty may remain the same, definition
that beauty should be interpreted may differ between groups of people.
case of Korean celadon, definitions of what made them beautiful wer
in the 1880s and had by the 1910s become standardized. However,
1930s interpretations of what constituted that beauty differed among W
and Japanese collectors. For Westerners, comparisons with Song wa
provided a means to demonstrate the unique beauty of Korean
Decorative features that are typically not seen on Song celadon tend
highlighted and were often seen as significant contributing factors to t
of Koryo celadon. They included qualities such as the soft tinge of t
glazes, their exquisitely carved designs and their inlaid decorations.64
However, Japanese ideas of what constituted the beauty of Korean
were firmly embedded within colonial readings of past and present
society. The theories espoused by Yanagi Soetsu 柳宗悦（1889-1961)
Japan's most famous collectors and scholars of Korean art, were par
influential. In a seminal essay published in 1922，Yanagi chara
Korean history as unstable and the Koreans as subservient to foreign
leading to the "essence" of Korea being lonely, sorrowful and spirit
national trait was manifested in the arts, as reflected in form, colour an
Korean art, he argued, was characterized by long and narrow lines, deno
gility, in contrast to Chinese art which was exemplified by stable forms
ing power, and Japanese art, represented by bright colours, typifying ple
a similar vein, the paucity of colour in Korean works of art signalled an
of pleasure in life".65
Not all scholars subscribed to this analysis of Korean art. The Briti
tor and scholar Sir Godfrey Gompertz (1904-92) criticized heavily the ar
that the aesthetics of Korean ceramics bore the effects of the so-called sadness
and suffering of the Korean people. He claimed that the Koryo period was
"just as full of light as well as shade as most other human eras".66
Nevertheless, Yanagi’ s theories had an enormous impact on Japanese and
later Korean interpretations of the beauty of Korean ceramics. Many Japanese
scholars and collectors, such as Koyama Fujio ,j、山富士夫(1900-75) and
Uchiyama Shozo 内山尚三（1920-2002)，reiterated Yanagi’s views in their

63 George Eumorfopoulos, Preface to The Eumorfopoulos Collection, Vol. I，by R. L.

Hobson (London: E. Benn Ltd., 1925), quoted in Pierson, Collectors, Collections and
Museums, 91.
64 F. S. K., “Korean pottery", 64; Hobson, "Sung and Yiian wares", 322-3.
65 Yanagi Soetsu, Yanagi Sdetsu zenshu (Collected works of Yanagi Soetsu) Vol. 6 (Tokyo:
Chikuma Shobo, 1980-92)，89-109, quoted in Brandt, "Objects of desire", 734-6.
66 Godfrey St. G. M. Gompertz, "The appeal of Korean celadon", Oriental Art XXIII, no. 1,
(Spring 1977)，63-4.

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482 CHARLOTTE HORLYCK

appraisals of Korean pottery. For them a quietness of spirit and sen

liness formed the beauty and essence of Koryo celadon.67

Acquiring the illicit

The perception that celadon ceramics had lain undisturbed for
before being discovered was in principle correct, irrespective of its
connotations. Following the demise of Koryo rule in 1392, th
Choson had maintained the Koryo royal tombs, since Confucia
conduct called for them to visit and maintain the graves of previou
The tombs were built in the form of stone chambers, covered by
earthen mound in front of which stone figures of officials and ti
placed. However, these tombs could be looted relatively easily by
through the stone walls of their underground chambers, as indic
drawing of the interior of the tomb of King Myongjong (r. 1
which the grave robbers' entry points are clearly marked (Figure
Despite the fact that the tomb interiors could be accessed without m
ficulty, they were left untouched until the late nineteenth century. By
ever, when Japanese archaeologists working for the Government-
Chosen (Chosen Sotokufu 朝鮮總督府）surveyed the tombs, th
been fully or partially emptied of burial artefacts.70 One of the m
why they remained intact was the severe punishments meted out to th
desecrated a grave. In Choson Korea this was seen as a moral violat
Confucian filial sentiments and was therefore one of the most serious crimes in
the Korean penal code.71 Westerners, too, knew that it was a capital offence to
loot tombs, making it initially "very hard to obtain specimens", as H. S.
Saunderson noted in 1895.72 With the weakening of Choson at the end of the
nineteenth century and in the early twentieth century, these laws lapsed, leading
to increased plundering of grave sites.
John Piatt provides a good summary of the situation on the peninsula during
these years:

Any desecration of the tombs being a capital offence, and always accom
plished at much risk, very few specimens were obtained in this manner, the
great scarcity of fine early examples [of Koryo celadon] continuing till we

67 Fujio Koyama, "Koryo celadon", in Byung-chang Rhee (ed.), Kankoku bijutsu ShUsen,
412; Gompertz, Korean Celadon and Other Wares, 3-4.
68 Piatt, "Ancient Korean tomb wares", 229.
69 The chamber contained twelve pieces of celadon, a gilt-bronze hairpin and three bronze
coins, now housed in the National Museum of Korea. Chosen Sotokufu, Taisho 5-nendo
koseki chosa hokoku (1916 Report on investigations of historic remains) (Keijo [Seoul]:
Chosen Sotokufu 1916)，512-6. For a discussion of the tomb and its contents, see
Charlotte Horlyck, "Burial offerings to objets d'art: Celadon wares of the Koryo king
dom (ad 918-1392)", Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society 73，2008-09, 84.
70 The findings were published in Chosen Sotokufu, Koseki chosa hokoku.
71 Homer B. Hulbert, The Passing of Korea (New York: Doubleday, Page & Company,
1906), 568. “
72 Saunderson, ‘‘Korea and its peop

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 UNEARTHING AND COLLECTING KORYO CELADON CERAMICS 483

Figure 3. Interior of the tomb of King Myongjong (r. 1170-9

Kaesong. Looters' entry points are circled. (After Chosen Sot
5-Nendo Koseki Chosa Hokoku (1916 Report on investigatio
remains) (Keijo [Seoul]: Chosen Sotokufii, 1916)，507.) (colour online)

come to the time of the Russo-Japanese war, when the Japanese army
made its headquarters in Korea. This was too good an opportunity to be
lost, and Japanese and Koreans, who knew what was likely to be found
in the tombs, systematically robbed them and obtained a large number
of most valuable specimens. The most important excavations were made
in the vicinity of Song-do [Kaesong] where the graves of the early
kings and nobility of the Koryu [Koryo] dynasty were to be found.
To-day most of the graves in this neighborhood have been plundered.73

Artefacts continued to be stolen from tombs even after Korea became a protec
torate of Japan in 1905. Gompertz went so far as to describe the situation in
Korea as a "veritable orgy of pillaging".74 Shimokoriyama Seiichi 下郡山誠
一（b. 1883)，who worked as a government advisor to the Imperial Museum
of Korea in 1908，wrote that after having taken up his position in Seoul, he vis
ited the official residence of Komiya Mihomatsu 小着三保松（1859-1935)，a
cabinet secretary, where he was surprised to see a room full of boxes with arte
facts raided from Koryo tombs. To avoid being seen by the police, looters would
bring their goods during the night to dealers in Seoul, who would sell them on to
interested buyers the following morning. Dealers visited Komiya, who would
assess and purchase such pieces virtually every day. Following the visit,
Shimokoriyama himself also began to frequent the dealers.75
News of the plundering of tombs and the subsequent availability of cheap
mortuary ceramics also reached art collectors in Britain. In an article published
in Burlington Magazine in 1912，John Piatt explained in detail how pit tombs
and their contents were discovered by grave robbers:

Piatt, "Ancient Korean tomb wares，229.

Gompertz, ‘‘The study and appreciation of Koryo wares", 420.
777 345 Park So-hyon, "Koryo chagi”，13.

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484 CHARLOTTE HORLYCK

In order to locate the tombs heavy sticks and pointed iron rods w
By knocking on the ground it was often possible to tell that t
hollow place beneath, and when the pointed iron rod was bore
ground and went through into space it was known that a tom
found in this spot.76

Rumours of the many antique ceramics that could be found in S

cheap rates, led some Western collectors to travel to the penin
of bargains. One such individual was Aubrey Le Blond (186
British collector who donated and sold many of his Korean
V&A.77 In 1913 Le Blond and his wife met Professor Archi
who recommended that they travel to Korea to purchase antique
lection, since good quality objects could be acquired for reasonab
By the 1920s the "orgy" was over, as the Japanese took measures
Korea's cultural heritage. In 1916, the colonial government drew up
several articles to enforce the safeguarding of cultural sites and hist
Titled "Regulations on the Preservation of Ancient Rites and Re
{Koseki oyobi ibutsu hoson kitei 古蹟及遺物保存規則)，the artic
how ancient monuments {koseki 古蹟）and ancient remains {ibutsu 遺
be defined, and stated that if such ancient monuments or remains w
the perpetrator should be reported to the police. It also stipulate
permission was needed from the government for the removal, repa
vation of remains.79 Although the regulation did not stop the looti
altogether, it did have some impact.
As celadon wares became scarcer on the art market, their pri
much to the frustration of private collectors and museum instituti
Reverend A. S. Hewlett wrote to the V&A, inquiring whether it
interest in purchasing a number of Korean antiques, including celad
in his possession. He explained that he had difficulties in pricin
“since Corean things have been at a fabulous price since the r
tombs has been stopped by the Government in compliance with the
tectorate and the Japanese [...] ask an exorbitant price both in
Japan”.80 The regulation of 1916 was replaced in 1933 by the

76 Piatt, “Ancient Korean tomb wares", 229. In contrast to the royal f

ranking aristocrats, lesser-ranking members of Koryo society were in
tombs that were marked with a small earthen mound. For a discussion of different
methods of burial in Koryo, see Charlotte Horlyck, "Ways of burial in Koryo times",
in Charlotte Horlyck and Michael Pettid (eds), Death, Mourning, and the Afterlife in
Korea: Critical Aspects of Death from Ancient to Contemporary Times (Honolulu:
Hawaii University Press, forthcoming).
77 A substantial part of Le Blond's Korean objects came into the V&A permanently in
1918. In 1937 the V&A further acquired from him a smaller number of Koryo and
Choson ceramics. Wilkinson, "Collecting Korean art", 248-50. For the 1937 acqui
sitions, see V&A Archive, MA/1/L594, nominal file: Le Blond, Mr & Mrs Aubrey.
78 Le Blond purchased his objects through a Korean dealer in Seoul, who apparently spoke
English well. Mrs Aubrey Le Blond, Day In, Day Out (London: John Lane, the Bodley
Head Limited, 1928), 1624.
79 Pai, "The politics of Korea's past", 32-3.
80 V&A Archive, MA/1/H1842, nominal File: Hewlett A S (Rev).

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 UNEARTHING AND COLLECTING KORYO CELADON CERAMICS 485

Ancient Sites, Famous Places, and Natural Monuments Act” (Hdm

meisho kinnenbutsu hdzonrei 寳物古蹟名勝記念物保存令)，wh
in place to reinforce the 1916 regulation and to monitor private
and individuals who possessed national treasures.81 It effectively
to the export of antiques and from this time onwards Western c
curators had to source Korean artefacts from already-established coll
side the peninsula.82

Appropriating celadon through museum displays

There is no doubt that the illegality of plundering tombs initially de
Koreans from desecrating graves. Yet, it should also be taken into ac
until the late nineteenth century there was no local interest in the a
remains from past Korean kingdoms. Fujita Ryosaku attributed
Confucian scholars' penchant for written documents.83 The Cho
collect Chinese paintings, ancient Chinese bronzes and contemporary
In this respect, they followed the practices of contemporary and ear
emperors, who built up substantial collections of Chinese artworks.84
the Korean elite did not covet local artefacts from tombs, partially du
vailing belief in the sacredness of the bodies of ancestors and their t
The non-Korean heritage of artefacts from mainland China may
easier for the Confucians of Choson to ignore the original tomb
Chinese antiques. The reluctance to acquire Korean mortuary goo
have persisted even after the fall of Choson. Lorraine D'O Warne
1930 that "the Koreans have a strong religious dislike of using
were buried with the dead, and for this reason they place no great v
tery that was so used".85
However, attitudes did begin to change in the 1880s, as members o
family started to acquire celadon ceramics, as demonstrated by K
gift of a celadon dish to Horace Allen mentioned earlier. It is not kn
the dish formed part of a larger collection of ceramics, but it signal
attitude towards local mortuary goods. It is not known which impetu
the royal family's acquisitions of Korean antiques. Perhaps they were
ary countermeasure against the Westerners and the Japanese, who w
up Korean antiques in increasingly large numbers around this time.

81 Hyung II Pai, "The creation of national treasures and monuments: the 1

laws on the preservation of Korean remains and relics and their colonial
Korean Studies 25/1, 2001, 78-9.
82 For example, it led Bernard Rackham to urge the V&A to purchase Aub
collection of Choson porcelains, arguing that it was "difficult nowadays
elsewhere, owing to official restrictions of exports from Korea". V&A Arch
L594, nominal file: Le Blond.
83 Pai, "The politics of Korea's past", 28-9.
84 Rosemary E. Scott, "The Chinese imperial collections", in Stacey Pi
Collecting Chinese Art: Interpretation and Display (London: Per
Foundation, 2000), 19-32.
85 Lorraine D'O Warner, "Korai celadon in America", Eastern Art. An Annu

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 486 CHARLOTTEHORLYCK

The official endorsement of the collecting of mortuar

the founding of the Imperial Museum of Korea.86
whether it was the Koreans or the Japanese who init
the museum. Komiya Mihomatsu was in charge
Ch'angdok Palace in 1907，a project that had been n
of Emperor Kojong's87 residence from Toksu Pal
According to him, the Cabinet Prime Minister Yi W
1926) and Supreme Officer Yi Yun-yong 李允用（
that Kojong would be bored in Ch'angdok Palace, and
ment of some form could be arranged for him. This led
building of a zoo, a botanical garden and a museum
Ch'anggyong Palace, located immediately south of Ch
After having amassed 17,000 objects of various m
opened to the public in 1909.89 The royal family's en
nalled by Emperor Sunjong's (r. 1907-10) declaration
"share pleasure with people"(詞晉叫叠内咅鲁斗十
leries, celadon ceramics were displayed alongside ar
Buddhist sculptures and Choson ink paintings (Figu
nificant as it allowed the Korean people to encounter
for the first time, but its impact went beyond Korea's
vel guides to Seoul, published in English, recommend
museum as a way to study "the ancient arts of the co
of its opening, the museum publicly validated celado
commodities that formed an integral part of Korea's cu
celadon ewer and basin set with underglaze copper-red d
teenth century was among the first pieces to be acqu
was purchased from Kondo Sagoro 近藤佐五良a J
based in Seoul, for the significant sum of 950 won. For
it may be noted that the entry fee to the museum was in
adults and that in the same year Kondo sold an inlaid
thirteenth century to the Museum for only 150 won
and archaeological significance of Koryo celadon wa
when the Japanese opened the Museum of the Gover
in Seoul in 1915.93 Founded as a means to store and

86 It was renamed the Museum of the Yi Royal Family (Yi w

博物館）in 1911，following the annexation of Korea.
87 Kojong proclaimed the Korean Empire in 1897, but was in 19
Japanese.
88 Komiya included this anecdote in the introduction to the first illustrated catalogue of the
Museum of the Yi Royal Family, published in 1912. Kungnip chung'ang pangmulgwan,
Han 'gukpangmulgwan kaegwan 100 chunyon kinyom t 'ukpydlchdn (Korean Museums'
100 year celebration) (Seoul: National Museum of Korea, 2009), 38.
Kungnip chung'ang pangmulgwan, Han 'guk pangmulgwan kaegwan, 25.
Kungnip chung'ang pangmulgwan, Han 'guk pangmulgwan kaegwan, 28.
Thomas Cook and Son, Cook's Guide to Peking, North China, South Manchuria, Korea
(Peking: The North-China Daily News & Herald, Ltd., 1924)，134.
Kungnip chung'ang pangmulgwan, Han 'guk pangmulgwan kaegwan，31—3.
8 9 9 9o123 The museum was renamed the National Museum of Korea (Kungnip pangmulgwan 号甸
辟晉进)in 1945. It took its present name of Kungnip chungang pangmulgwan, likewise

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 UNEARTHING AND COLLECTING KOR Y6 CELADON CERAMICS 487

Figure 4. Ceramic galleries in the Museum of the Yi Roya

Kungnip chung'ang pangmulgwan, Han 'guk pangmulgw
chunydn kinydm t'ukpydlchdn (Korean museums 100 year ce
National Museum of Korea, 2009), 42.)

of artefacts that Japanese archaeologists were excavating on

museum firmly placed celadon within Korea's past cultural h
lighted their antiquarian references.
Prior to the opening of these museums in Seoul, ceramics h
displayed in museums and galleries outside Korea. In Octob
overseas exhibition of Korean ceramics was shown in New
owned by Edward Greey (1835-88), a well-known dealer
Chinese art. Greey offered for sale the East Asian ceram
Captain Francis Brinkley (1841-1912), an Irish newspaper
scholar, who resided in Japan. Among Brinkley's pieces were
ceramics, including a few which appear to be Korean celadon
In Japan, the first major exhibition of celadon ceramics was
the autumn of 1909. It featured pieces owned by Japanese co

translated as National Museum of Korea, in 1972. During the col

museums were opened in Kyongju (in 1926)，Pyongyang (in 1931), Kaesong (in
1933) and Puyo (in 1939). Kungnip chung'ang pangmulgwan, Han'guk pangmulgwan
kaegwan, 47.
94 Brinkley himself wrote the catalogue: Description of "the Brinkley collection " of antique
Japanese, Chinese and Korean Porcelain, Pottery and Faience (New York: E. Greey,
1885). See also Horlyck, “Burial offerings", 81-3.

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488 CHARLOTTE HORLYCK

Figure 5. Double gourd wine ewer and basin inlaid with g

painted with underglaze copper-red, thirteenth century
918-1392). Ewer H. 34.2 cm, D. of body 14.6 cm，of base
7.4 cm, D. of rim 17.9 cm, of base 11.2 cm. National Museum of Korea,
Seoul. (colour online)

Osaka, Kyoto as well as in S

and high-class families,
Takahashi 男爵高橋，sign
mainly a high-class pursui
were exhibited, among the
had been popular among
authors of the catalogue, t
artefacts which could no
Japanese to "penetrate int
remain there", thus suppor

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 UNEARTHING AND COLLECTING KORY0 CELADON CERAMICS 489

Figure 6. Vase inlaid with peony and chrysanthemum, thirteenth

period (ad 918-1392). H. 25.6 cm, National Museum of Korea
treasure no. 114. (colour online)

Korea's cultural heritage.95 Over the cou

bitions were followed by several oth
served to establish celadon wares as suit
ernment institutions.

Conclusion

Celadon ceramics began to be unearthed in the late nineteenth century

the 1910s had become desirable commodities for the Koreans, the J
the Americans and the British, among other Westerners. During the first

95 It5 and Nishimura, Kdryu-sho, 3-12.

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490 CHARLOTTE HORLYCK

Figure 7. Set of celadon cosmetics boxes and an oil bottle in th

Baron Takahashi. (After Ito Yasuburo and Nishimura Shot
(Koryo celadon) (Tokyo: Ito Yasuburo and Nishimura Shota
page number) (colour online)

Figure 8. Ceramics from Ding kilns in

Ito Yasuburo and Nishimura Shotar
Yasuburo and Nishimura Shotaro,

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 UNEARTHING AND COLLECTING KORY0 CELADON CERAMICS 491

of the twentieth century, interest in celadon caused a veritable collectin

and hundreds of ceramics changed hands. However, by the 1930s the boo
over. The richest tombs had been looted and the stringent export laws is
the Japanese in 1933 meant that what had already been unearthed
longer be sold to overseas buyers. Nevertheless, by then, substantial coll
of ceramics had already been formed in Korea, Japan and the West.
It is clear that different groups of people collected Korean celadon for
iety of reasons. For Westerners, celadon wares initially presented a
image of what was different and unique about Korea and served as m
position Korea's cultural heritage within a broader East Asian context. A
strong impetus behind the collecting of celadon lay in their antiquar
ences. Among Western and Japanese collectors, the Koryo kingdom
be associated with a long-lost heyday of which the only trace remai
celadon. This idea was particularly influential among Japanese collec
scholars, whose visions of Korea's past conformed to a colonial rea
Japan's role as the saviour of the peninsula.
The fact that celadon ceramics accorded well with prevailing perce
beauty served to enhance their appeal. For Westerners, Korean celad
wares were unlike Ming and Qing porcelains that, by the 1910s, h
branded as decadent and ugly. Instead, they bore similarities to the r
and simple forms typical of Song and Yuan celadon that had begun t
the attention of collectors. For the Japanese, Korean celadon were more
than akin to Song and Yuan celadon. To them, the beauty of Korean
was rooted in the qualities of quietness, spirituality, nothingness and
characteristics that, according to them, formed the essence of Korea.
By the 1910s celadon ceramics had been appropriated through inst
practices and scholarly writings that served to validate them as antiques
ured for their "Korean", historic and aesthetic qualities. Some cela
even been canonized as "the best" of Korean art. Since their first discove
don ceramics have shifted from being obscure things in the ground
prized exhibits coveted by an increasingly large and diverse group of ind
and institutions. Their temporal connotations have also changed. Du
early twentieth century celadon signified the highlights of a bygon
Japanese and Western collectors alike, but after the 1950s they became n
symbols of Korea's past as well as present achievements. This concep
tinued until today and was recently reiterated by Kim Young-na, Direct
National Museum of Korea, who stated that Koryo celadon pieces "repres
very essence of art and craftsmanship at its finest".96

96 Kim Young-na, foreword to Park Hae-hoon and Jang Sung-wook (eds), Ch 'o
pisaek ch 'ongja (The best under heaven, the celadons of Korea) (Seoul: Kung
g'ang pangmulgwan, 2012), 4.

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