Yongzheng-mark painted enamel covered jar with tied-cloth design

The Yongzheng reign had the most refined eye of the Qing, and its painted enamel shows it. This covered jar is dressed in a tied-cloth design, the enamel painted to look like the vessel is swaddled in silk knotted at the top.

The trompe l’oeil is the trick. Painted enamel can mimic anything, and here it mimics cloth, the folds and shadows brushed so the hard metal reads as soft wrapped goods. It is a joke the emperor was meant to get.

Yongzheng pieces favour restraint, a few well placed motifs on a clean ground, and this jar keeps that discipline even while performing a conceit. The taste is confident enough to play.

A jar pretending to be a parcel. The court that commissioned it liked wit as much as wealth, and the enamel let both show.

Image © The Palace Museum. View the original in the Palace Museum collection.