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#Joseon #BlueAndWhite #CraneAndTortoise #ACESGallery #FallEstatesAuction #StamfordConnecticut #18thCentury #KoreanPorcelain #UnderglazeBlue #LongevitySymbols #BunwonKilns #AntiqueAuction #RecordPrice #CulturalArtifact #AsianArt
An uncommon Joseon dynasty blue-and-white jar realized $344,400 at auction, far surpassing its $5,000–10,000 estimate. Sold as lot 100 during ACES Gallery’s Fall Estates Auction on October 18 in Stamford, Connecticut, the 13½-inch ovoid vessel had spent decades on the living room floor of a house in Bedford, New York, part of a collection assembled over a lifetime by its owner. Alex Fonarow, ACES founder and appraiser, recognized it as a rare “crane and tortoise” jar decorated in underglaze cobalt, a medium valued for its technical difficulty and historical weight.
The jar belongs to the sipjangsaeng, or “Ten Symbols of Longevity,” a motif set unique to Korean art and rooted in Daoist immortality folklore, folk belief, and shamanism. Cranes and tortoises—traditionally said to live 2,000 and 10,000 years respectively—fill four alternating roundels, each accompanied by a cloud or auspicious vapour. The ovoid body sits beneath a ruyi-style cloud collar on the shoulder and a short cylindrical neck. The glaze is densely crazed across the surface, and the foot ring displays natural iron spotting, characteristics typical of official kiln production.
Technically, the jar’s form and decoration date it to the latter half of the 18th century. From the 15th century, Joseon cobalt-blue porcelain was prized for its rarity and the difficulty of achieving a consistent tone. The court-operated Bunwon kilns at Gwangju, a branch of the royal Saongwon office, produced wares from the 1460s until privatization in 1883. After relocating several times in search of fuel wood, the kilns settled at Bunwon-ri in 1752; the ruyi cloud collar on this jar is a hallmark of Bunwon-ri output, supporting its attribution to the second half of the 1700s. Its restrained composition—two motifs repeated across four medallions—distinguishes it from later 19th-century examples that crowded all ten longevity symbols onto single pots, often combining blue with iron-brown pigment.
The jar’s artistic significance is confirmed by museum counterparts. Similar underglaze blue crane-and-tortoise jars are held in the Freer Gallery of Art (attributed to the Bunwon kilns), the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. These institutions place the ACES jar within a small, respected group of Joseon porcelain renowned for both symbolic depth and technical mastery.
The jar’s journey from a domestic living room to the auction block underscores the unpredictability of the art market. Though conservatively estimated, it sold for over 34 times its low estimate, contributing to a total result of $940,000 across 452 lots. The buyer’s premium of 23% to 28% (32% for credit card payment) brought the final realized price to $344,400 with premium. The sale not only records a new benchmark for Joseon blue-and-white at ACES but also reaffirms the enduring appeal of Joseon symbolism and craftsmanship among collectors.
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