Joseon Porcelain Breaks Auction Record
By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
A white porcelain dish (baekja) from the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) was sold at a U.S auction for a record-breaking price, Tuesday local time.
The ``Warrant Jar'' was sold for nearly $4.2 million, the highest price for an article in the Joseon Baekja category, the auctioneer Bonhams & Butterfields said.
The dish was sold over telephone to an undisclosed Asian buyer after a bidding war among more than 12 clients.
According to the company, the jar is believed to have been made in the 1800s and its former owner was a family in Boston. The piece shows a bearded mountain spirit (san shin), in the act of pulling a tiger's tail while basking under a pine tree, sun and clouds.
It was discovered in an appraisal event and was exhibited at the company's bi-annual auction of Fine Asian Works of Art and was sold for $4,184,000.
``Despite the global economic downturn, we are continuing to see that rare objects can achieve record prices,'' Dessa Goddard, the company's Asian Art Department director, said.
Currently, the highest price for a Korean artwork was paid in 1994 at Christie's for a white and blue porcelain piece which sold for $8.4 million.