Water Dropper Korea, Choson period, 1800s porcelain with underglaze cobalt blue and copper red, 6 1/4 inches (16.5 cm) high Gift of Fay Shwayder 1971.20

In an age of great scholarly activity, many accessories were made for the use of Choson calligraphers and painters. Water was required to mix ink on an inkstone, and potters indulged their imagination and creative ingenuity to make water droppers in a variety of decorative designs and forms. This dropper, in the form of a peach, is decorated with a blue leaf on each side and a twig coiling around the base, and is somewhat larger than most other water droppers of the period. The peach is a symbol of immortality borrowed from Chinese Daoism.


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