Explore the antique jewelry of the Forbidden City together

In ancient times, the emperor was said to be a son of Heaven, and therefore Heaven’s supreme power was bestowed upon him. The emperors’ residence was built leading north, as an earthly foil to the heavenly Purple Palace, i.e. the North Star, though to be home to the Celestial Emperor.

Considered a divine place, it was certainly forbidden to ordinary people and that is why the Forbidden City is so named.

Originally it was called “Purple Forbidden City” (紫禁城 Zijincheng /dzrr-jin-chng/).

Now, in China, it is usually called the “Former Palace” (故宫 Gugong /goo-gong/).

more information: https://www.chinahighlights.com/beijing/forbidden-city/

From the treasures of the Forbidden City’s jewelry collection, we can see the Qing Dynasty craftsmen’s ability to express the movement of lines and the control of the tension of colors. The jewels of the empresses in the Qing Dynasty were the masters of folk jewelry craftsmanship at that time, and each piece must be carefully crafted, even from the aesthetics of modern people, it is still beautiful.

The selection of jewelry materials, from advocating gold and silver to pursuing jewelry to the craftsmanship of jewelry making, we must first talk about the selection of jewelry materials in the Qing Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, jewelry was mainly made of gold and silver, while gems, beads, and jade were only used for decoration and substitution. In fact, since the Yuan Dynasty, merchants have replaced colored gems imported by Islam to the hinterland of the Central Plains, but it was the royal family of the Qing Dynasty that allowed gems to play the leading role in jewelry

The following gold-inlaid jewelry Erlongxi Zhutiankou, Qing Dynasty, is 19.5 cm long, 5.5 cm wide, and weighs 69g. The mouth is long and slightly curved. The main body is two dragons with golden silk and inlaid with 4 east beads, and the middle of the two dragons is decorated with rubies as fire beads. The two dragons are bordered by a little green cloud. There are 11 strings of pearls under the mouth of Tan, each with 7 pearls, with red sapphires as the pendants.

Dian Cui craft is one of the most eye-catching crafts in the collection of the Palace Museum. Dian Cui is made by combining the feathers of a kingfisher with metal jewelry. The blue that was loved by the Qing imperial family mentioned above was mostly expressed in large quantities in the form of dotted green, overlapped and used in large areas.