This basin 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 Eight Auspicious Symbols pattern is the argument. Translucent enamel builds colour from the inside out, each cell a small field bounded by brass, so the basin 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 basin 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 | Translucent enamel basin (透明珐琅八吉祥纹面盆) |
|---|---|
| Artefact no. | 故00118395 |
| 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.