Koryo Celadon Inlaid Tile, Koryo Dynasty, 12th – 13th c. AD, Korea, L: 31.7 x H: 22.8cm

This extremely rare Koryo Celadon Tile, made of thin stoneware with a floral and bird decoration inlaid with white slip and iron oxide black details, was recently acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Korean Department.

Koryo Dynasty inlaid celadon tiles are exceedingly rare outside of Korea. They are almost exclusively found in Buddhist temple excavations, indicating that their use was reserved for this purpose. They are often found cracked due to their extreme thinness.

There is a similar example in the collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, acquired in 1933. Another is in the Cleveland Museum of Art since 1918. The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka has a smaller example published in their 1992 “An Introduction to Koryo Celadon”, pl.80. A fourth example from the Korean National Museum is published in “Sekai Touji Zenshu”, Shogakukan Tokyo, 1978 Vol. 18, pl. 147.