Side-dish Lacquer Box with Peony and Scroll Design Inlaid with Mother-of-Pearl thumbnail 1
Not currently on display at the V&A

Side-dish Lacquer Box with Peony and Scroll Design Inlaid with Mother-of-Pearl

Box
1550-1599 (made)
Place of origin

This is a five-tiered box used to store side dishes. The surface of the box was covered with hemp before being lacquered and decorated with mother-of- pearl inlay. The lid and the four sides of each tier are adorned with peony scrolls including full-bloomed flower heads, acanthus leaves, and vines. They are inlaid in mosaics of thin strips of mother-of-pearl for the vine and in mother-of-pearl cut- outs for the flowers and leaves with details of peony flowers expressed in incised lines. The inside of the lid is embellished with orchid flowers and leaves. Decorations on the rim of each tier and on the four sides of the lid are made with broken pieces of mother-of- pearl. The height of each of the tiers decreases towards the top, and each tier has short legs to make the upper plate stable.


Object details

Object type
Parts
This object consists of 6 parts.

  • Tiered Box
  • Tier
  • Tier
  • Tier
  • Tier
  • Lid
TitleSide-dish Lacquer Box with Peony and Scroll Design Inlaid with Mother-of-Pearl (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Lacquered wood and shell. Korean inlaid lacquer (najeon chilgi 나전칠기) , filing technique (jureumjil 줄음질) The object has a coat of shellac that gives it a yellow-brown tint.
Brief description
Woo, Korea, vess/cont/holders, lacquer

Woo, Korea, vess/cont/holders, lacquer

Woo, Korea, vess/cont/holders, lacquer

Woo, Korea, vess/cont/holders, lacquer

Woo, Korea, vess/cont/holders, lacquer

Woo, Korea, vess/cont/holders, lacquer
Dimensions
  • Length: 26.2cm
  • Width: 16.2cm
  • Height: 20.4cm
Credit line
Given by Mr. A.L.B. Ashton
Subjects depicted
Summary
This is a five-tiered box used to store side dishes. The surface of the box was covered with hemp before being lacquered and decorated with mother-of- pearl inlay. The lid and the four sides of each tier are adorned with peony scrolls including full-bloomed flower heads, acanthus leaves, and vines. They are inlaid in mosaics of thin strips of mother-of-pearl for the vine and in mother-of-pearl cut- outs for the flowers and leaves with details of peony flowers expressed in incised lines. The inside of the lid is embellished with orchid flowers and leaves. Decorations on the rim of each tier and on the four sides of the lid are made with broken pieces of mother-of- pearl. The height of each of the tiers decreases towards the top, and each tier has short legs to make the upper plate stable.
Bibliographic references
  • Garner, Harry (1979) Chinese Lacquer, London-Boston: Faber and Faber, p. 234, pl. 180, 181
  • National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage. Daejeon: National Research Institue of Cultural Heritage, 2013, p.240.
  • Kim, Rosalie and Melchar, Dana. 'Conservation of Korean Najeon Chilgi at the Victoria and Albert Museum: Reviving the long-lost lustre'. Arts of Asia, vol. 47, no. 5, 2017: 63-71.
Collection
Accession number
W.43:1-1938

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Record createdJune 25, 2009
Record URL
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