Collection record · Nature & imagination
Dog-shaped Paperweight
The collection record classifies this work as sculpture. It is dated 676–935. Recorded culture or place: Korea, Unified Silla period (676–935).
Explore the object recordOBJECT RECORD
A closer look at the details.
- Museum title
- Dog-shaped Paperweight
- Date
- 676–935
- Culture / origin
- Korea, Unified Silla period (676–935)
- Materials and technique
- gilt bronze
- Dimensions
- Overall: 5 x 2.7 cm (1 15/16 x 1 1/16 in.)
- Artist / maker
- Not specified by the museum
- Museum
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Accession number
- 1987.160
FROM THE MUSEUM
In the museum’s words
The following description is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s original English record.
This small object in the shape of a hybrid dog-lion is believed to have been used as a paperweight. Since the Three Kingdoms period (57 BC−668), mercury amalgam gilding had been widely employed to embellish metal objects as well as to make their surface resistant to acids. This technique involves mixing pure gold powder with liquid mercury to form a paste-like mixture. As heat is applied, the mercury evaporates, but an opaque layer of gold remains on the surface. This coating must be polished by first rubbing it with dried rice seedlings, then processing it in ash lye to eliminate impurities; next, the piece is washed and rinsed in a plum vinegar bath.
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Text and image sources
The Cleveland Museum of Art · Gift of Robert H. Ellsworth in honor of Sherman E. Lee · CC0
The summary is based on public collection data. Refer to the museum’s latest record for the title, date and attribution.
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