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拍品專文
Pronounced hui in Korean and xi, or sometimes shuangxi, in Chinese, the “double happiness” character on the cover suggests that this exquisite box was associated with marriage and likely was presented as a wedding gift to a bride and groom. The box is crafted of black lacquer over a wooden core, the lacquer inlaid with mother of pearl and with each black lacquer design panel edged with a thin border of inlaid twisted brass wire. This stunning box reflects the artistic creativity of Korean lacquer artists at the end of the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910), just as it demonstrates their extraordinarily high level of technical proficiency. In fact, the box itself represents a perfect marriage of design and craftsmanship.
The “double happiness” character is a ligature composed by joining two “happiness” characters side by side; in this case, through reduplication, the meaning of the “happiness” character is amplified to “double happiness, or simply. In both China and Korea, the “double happiness” character typically appears on traditional decorative items associated with marriage; in fact, the double happiness emblem characteristically appears on all manner of items associated with a wedding ceremony as well as on gifts presented to the bride and groom.
Though little is known of the earliest history of lacquer-making in Korea, archaeological evidence indicates that Korean craftsmen were making lacquered objects at least two thousand years ago, in the late Neolithic and early historic periods. By the Goryeo dynasty (918–1392) Koreans were producing elegant lacquer vessels and sutra-storage chests in black lacquer embellished with small floral designs inlaid in mother-of-pearl and sometimes tortoiseshell, the designs occasionally augmented with small, twisted, metal wires inset as borders and as the stems in floral arabesques. The tradition of inlaid lacquers continued into the succeeding Joseon dynasty (1392–1910), usually in black lacquer with bold floral designs inlaid in mother-of-pearl, but increasingly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the tradition expanded to include both red and black lacquers and the inlays to include tortoiseshell, sharkskin, and twisted copper or brass wires in addition to mother-of-pearl. Differing from the Chinese, who generally preferred cinnabar lacquer with carved decoration, and from the Japanese who tended to favor black lacquer with designs inlaid in gold, Koreans were partial to lacquers with designs inlaid in mother-of-pearl.
Although the principal design elements on lacquers of the Goryeo and first half of the Joseon dynasty often sported narrow borders with small floral patterns, borders with geometric designs began to find favor in the eighteenth century. Some eighteenth-century boxes sport bands of solid mother-of-pearl as border designs; in fact, it likely was such borders that inspired the present covered box and related pieces that claim allover mother-of-pearl decoration. The use of allover decoration in mother-of-pearl is a Korean innovation, as is the arrangements of the small pieces of mother-of-pearl in a configuration that resembles shattered ice. In some cases, though not on this box, the individual pieces of mother-of-pearl were incised with small floral designs, the incised lines often filled with charcoal or black ink to emphasize the designs.
Related in style, a small chest of drawers with decoration of flowers, birds, and insects in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, has been assigned to the late Joseon period and dated to the early twentieth century (2006.260a–g).
Robert D. Mowry
Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art Emeritus,
Harvard Art Museums, and
Senior Consultant, Christie’s
The “double happiness” character is a ligature composed by joining two “happiness” characters side by side; in this case, through reduplication, the meaning of the “happiness” character is amplified to “double happiness, or simply. In both China and Korea, the “double happiness” character typically appears on traditional decorative items associated with marriage; in fact, the double happiness emblem characteristically appears on all manner of items associated with a wedding ceremony as well as on gifts presented to the bride and groom.
Though little is known of the earliest history of lacquer-making in Korea, archaeological evidence indicates that Korean craftsmen were making lacquered objects at least two thousand years ago, in the late Neolithic and early historic periods. By the Goryeo dynasty (918–1392) Koreans were producing elegant lacquer vessels and sutra-storage chests in black lacquer embellished with small floral designs inlaid in mother-of-pearl and sometimes tortoiseshell, the designs occasionally augmented with small, twisted, metal wires inset as borders and as the stems in floral arabesques. The tradition of inlaid lacquers continued into the succeeding Joseon dynasty (1392–1910), usually in black lacquer with bold floral designs inlaid in mother-of-pearl, but increasingly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the tradition expanded to include both red and black lacquers and the inlays to include tortoiseshell, sharkskin, and twisted copper or brass wires in addition to mother-of-pearl. Differing from the Chinese, who generally preferred cinnabar lacquer with carved decoration, and from the Japanese who tended to favor black lacquer with designs inlaid in gold, Koreans were partial to lacquers with designs inlaid in mother-of-pearl.
Although the principal design elements on lacquers of the Goryeo and first half of the Joseon dynasty often sported narrow borders with small floral patterns, borders with geometric designs began to find favor in the eighteenth century. Some eighteenth-century boxes sport bands of solid mother-of-pearl as border designs; in fact, it likely was such borders that inspired the present covered box and related pieces that claim allover mother-of-pearl decoration. The use of allover decoration in mother-of-pearl is a Korean innovation, as is the arrangements of the small pieces of mother-of-pearl in a configuration that resembles shattered ice. In some cases, though not on this box, the individual pieces of mother-of-pearl were incised with small floral designs, the incised lines often filled with charcoal or black ink to emphasize the designs.
Related in style, a small chest of drawers with decoration of flowers, birds, and insects in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, has been assigned to the late Joseon period and dated to the early twentieth century (2006.260a–g).
Robert D. Mowry
Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art Emeritus,
Harvard Art Museums, and
Senior Consultant, Christie’s