This ewer is translucent enamel, the craft where metal is bent, filled with glass and fired until colour sits flush in a wired cell. the Ming workshop made it a court speciality.
The pattern is the argument. Translucent enamel builds colour from the inside out, each cell a small field bounded by brass, so the ewer reads as order made visible.
The Ming court ran its porcelain and enamel workshops as instruments of state, and the reign mark on a piece named the emperor as much as the object.
A ewer like this outlived the fashion that produced it. The translucent enamel still glows, which is the only immortality the workshop ever promised.
Object details
| Name | Transparent enamel teapot with folded branches and floral pattern (透明珐琅折枝花卉纹提梁壶) |
|---|---|
| Artefact no. | 新00091857 |
| Technique | Translucent enamel (透明珐琅) |
| Period | Ming dynasty (1368-1644 CE) |
| Collection | The Palace Museum, Beijing |
| Source | Palace Museum Digital Collection (数字文物库) |
Image © The Palace Museum. View the original in the Palace Museum Digital Collection.