Cover The Hong family mansion in Queen of Tears (2024), where a Dansaekhwa painting by Park Seo-bo hangs; on screen, as in real chaebol homes, status is signalled by art and objects such as the moon jar (Photo: Netflix)
The Hong family mansion in Queen of Tears (2024), where a Dansaekhwa painting by Park Seo-bo hangs; on screen, as in real chaebol homes, status is signalled by art and objects such as the moon jar (Photo: Netflix)
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From Joseon moon jars to mother-of-pearl lacquer, the objects furnishing Seoul’s most exclusive homes, and the K-drama sets that imitate them, are being watched closely by collectors and auction houses
The Hong family in Queen of Tears, the 2024 tvN series about a department store heiress and her lawyer husband from a farming village, live in a mansion whose exterior was filmed at the Korean Stone Art Museum in Seoul. Inside, the walls feature Dansaekhwa paintings by Park Seo-bo. The family patriarch’s office has large water-drop paintings by the late Kim Tschang-yeul. Both choices tell a Korean viewer what kind of family this is.
Seoul’s business families have been moving away from gilt and velvet towards plain, gallery-like interiors. The objects in those rooms tend to come from the same short list, and several of them now have a serious auction market.
The moon jar
Above A white porcelain moon jar from the Joseon dynasty, designated a National Treasure of Korea and held by the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul (Photo: Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea)
A white porcelain moon jar from the Joseon dynasty, designated a National Treasure of Korea and held by the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul (Photo: Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea)
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The dalhangari is a large white porcelain jar, made mostly in the 18th century. Potters threw it in two halves and joined them at the middle, so most jars are slightly uneven. It was originally used to store food such as grain and soy sauce. Its reputation as a symbol of Korean beauty dates largely from the mid-20th century, when the painter Kim Whanki and the critic Choi Soon-woo championed it.
Bonhams, which offered a jar in New York this March, estimates that fewer than 30 are known worldwide. According to Seoul Auction, jars taller than 40cm were mostly used in royal ceremonies, and they fetch the highest prices.
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Above An 18th-century Joseon moon jar, 45.1cm tall, which sold for US$4.56 million at Christie’s New York in March 2023, still the auction record for a moon jar (Photo: Christie’s)
An 18th-century Joseon moon jar, 45.1cm tall, which sold for US$4.56 million at Christie’s New York in March 2023, still the auction record for a moon jar (Photo: Christie’s)
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The auction record is US$4.56 million, paid at Christie’s New York in March 2023 for a 45.1cm jar from a Japanese private collection. It had been estimated at US$1 million to US$2 million. Sotheby’s New York sold another jar for US$3.57 million that September in a single-lot sale. In October 2023, Seoul Auction set a domestic record for a moon jar of 3.4 billion won, about US$2.5 million. Christie’s New York sold a jar for US$2.83 million in March 2025. This March it sold a 42.5cm jar for US$3.186 million, against an estimate of US$1 million to US$2 million.
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Above RM of BTS with a moon jar by Kwon Dae-sup, in a photo he shared on X in 2020 (Photo: @BTS_twt/X)
RM of BTS with a moon jar by Kwon Dae-sup, in a photo he shared on X in 2020 (Photo: @BTS_twt/X)
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Contemporary jars cost far less. Kwon Dae-sup, one of the best-known living makers, typically produces no more than ten a year at his studio in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, where the royal kilns that made moon jars once stood. RM of BTS has bought one of his jars and visited him at home.
The shape has also gone mass market. In April, The Korea Times counted 1,718 moon jar products on the homeware platform Ohou. Daiso was selling a 1,000 won moon jar toothbrush holder as part of a “feng shui interior” promotion, and Four Seasons Hotel Seoul was serving a moon jar cake.
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The Dansaekhwa canvas
Above Park Seo-Bo, Ecriture No. 080628, 2008 (Photo: courtesy of PARKSEOBO FOUNDATION)
Above From Line (1974) by Lee Ufan, one of the central figures of Dansaekhwa
Park Seo-Bo, Ecriture No. 080628, 2008 (Photo: courtesy of PARKSEOBO FOUNDATION)
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Dansaekhwa, the Korean monochrome painting movement of the 1970s, includes Park, Lee Ufan, Ha Chong-hyun, Chung Sang-hwa and Yun Hyong-keun. Auction prices for the movement rose sharply between 2013 and 2017. Park’s auction record came in October 2023, nine days before he died, when Ecriture No. 37-75-76 sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong for about HK$20.4 million (US$2.6 million). Lee’s East Winds (1984) sold for 3.1 billion won, about US$2.7 million, at Seoul Auction in August 2021, then a record for a living Korean artist.
Newer works sell for less. At Frieze Seoul in September, Kukje Gallery reported selling Park’s Ecriture No. 220611 (2022) for US$250,000 to US$300,000, and Ha’s Post-Conjunction 21–512 (2021) for US$253,000 to US$303,600. Ocula described sales in the fair’s opening days as somewhat muted.
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Mother-of-pearl
Above An octagonal mother-of-pearl lacquer case from the 19th century (Photo: Grampus/Wikimedia Commons)
An octagonal mother-of-pearl lacquer case from the 19th century (Photo: Grampus/Wikimedia Commons)
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Najeonchilgi is lacquerware inlaid with abalone shell. In Korean homes, it was a sign of wealth until the 1970s and 1980s. The jagaenong, a mother-of-pearl wardrobe that emerged in the early 20th century, became the best-known form. The craft later lost ground to modern furniture, and contemporary makers have been reworking it since. Kim Young-jun left his job as a stock analyst to pursue the craft and later received a commission from Bill Gates for mother-of-pearl Xboxes. Jian Yoo, the daughter of a najeonchilgi master, studied interior design at Pratt and makes furniture and sculpture at her studio, Arijian, in Namyangju.
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The scholar’s screen
Above A six-panel chaekgeori screen from the early 20th century, now in the collection of the Guimet Museum in Paris (Photo: Sotheby’s)
A six-panel chaekgeori screen from the early 20th century, now in the collection of the Guimet Museum in Paris (Photo: Sotheby’s)
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Chaekgeori, meaning “books and things”, are folding screens that depict shelves of books, bronzes, porcelain and other objects. The genre flourished in the last century of the Joseon dynasty. In July 2025, a six-panel screen attributed to the court painter Yi Taek-gyun sold at Ponte in Milan for €57,600 with premium, against an estimate of €15,000 to €25,000.
The bandaji
Above A Joseon dynasty bandaji chest from Gyeonggi Province, with a drop-front panel and iron and brass fittings (Photo:1stDibs)
A Joseon dynasty bandaji chest from Gyeonggi Province, with a drop-front panel and iron and brass fittings (Photo:1stDibs)
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The bandaji is a Joseon chest with a front panel that folds down, traditionally used to store a household’s clothes, bedding and valuables. Chests from different provinces vary in wood, ironwork and proportion, and collectors often identify them by region
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Jennifer Choo is Regional Managing Editor of Tatler Homes, covering architecture, interior design, and art across Asia. Based in Malaysia, she oversees regional content on luxury residential design and contemporary art collections. Legally trained but choosing to pursue her passion for design, she previously led notable design publications and worked as an interior stylist and art consultant for property developers, design firms, and private clients.
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