MOTHER-OF-PEARL INLAID PANELS: GORYEO DYNASTY (13TH CENTURY)WOOD FRAME: EDO PERIOD (18TH-19TH CENTURY)

Though little is known of the earliest history of lacquer-making in Korea, archaeological evidence indicates that Korean craftsmen were making lacquered objects at least two thousand years ago, in the late Neolithic and early historic periods. By the Goryeo dynasty (918–1392) Koreans were producing elegant lacquer vessels and sutra-storage chests in black lacquer embellished with small floral designs inlaid in mother-of-pearl and sometimes tortoiseshell, the designs occasionally augmented with small, twisted, metal wires inset as borders and as the stems in floral arabesques. The tradition of inlaid lacquers continued into the succeeding Joseon dynasty (1392–1910), but increasingly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the tradition expanded to include both red and black lacquers and the inlays to include tortoiseshell, sharkskin, and twisted copper or brass wires in addition to mother-of-pearl. Differing from the Chinese, who generally preferred cinnabar lacquer with carved decoration, and from the Japanese who tended to favor black lacquer with designs inlaid in gold, Koreans were partial to lacquers with designs inlaid in mother-of-pearl.
Although the principal design elements on lacquers of the Goryeo and first half of the Joseon dynasty often sported narrow borders with small floral patterns, borders with geometric designs began to find favor in the eighteenth century.