This jar is cloisonné enamel, the craft where metal is bent, filled with glass and fired until colour sits flush in a wired cell. the Imperial workshop made it a court speciality.
The dragon pattern is the argument. Cloisonné enamel builds colour from the inside out, each cell a small field bounded by brass, so the jar reads as order made visible.
Enamel ware let the court turn its oldest forms into its newest materials, fire and metal standing in for ink and bronze.
A jar like this outlived the fashion that produced it. The cloisonné enamel still glows, which is the only immortality the workshop ever promised.
Object details
| Name | Cloisonné enamel jar (掐丝珐琅游龙花卉纹瓜式盖罐) |
|---|---|
| Artefact no. | 故00118638 |
| Technique | Cloisonné enamel (掐丝珐琅) |
| Period | Imperial dynasty |
| 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.