This box is painted 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 pattern is the argument. Painted enamel builds colour from the inside out, each cell a small field bounded by brass, so the box 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 box like this outlived the fashion that produced it. The painted enamel still glows, which is the only immortality the workshop ever promised.
Object details
| Name | Painted enamel box (画珐琅蝴蝶纹蝴蝶式盒) |
|---|---|
| Artefact no. | 故00117878 |
| Technique | Painted enamel (画珐琅) |
| 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.