A Punch'ong bottle vase

This pear-shaped vase, also known as yuhuchunping, shows an exceptionally elegant form. The body is painted freely in iron-oxide with two humorous fish swimming. Because fish produce a large number of eggs, they symbolized prosperous of descendants, and this subject were frequently drawn as a representative design of ceramics from Joseon Dynasty.

For similar works with the same subject in the collection of National Museum of Korea, see Lee Sukyung, ed., Masterpieces from the Dongwon Collection in the National Museum of Korea, vol. 1 (Seoul: National Museum of Korea, 2012), pl. 55 and 56.