Pair of Floral Cloisonné Chinese Vases
€125.88
Pair of floral cloisonné Chinese vases handcrafted on copper with brass wire cloisons and vitreous enamel lotus and peony motifs. Standing approximately 30 cm tall, each piece is fired and hand-polished in the Beijing imperial workshop tradition — a matched pair built to serve as a permanent focal point in any room.
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Description
Pair of floral cloisonné Chinese vases bring five centuries of Beijing imperial craft into a contemporary interior. Each vase is built on a copper body, its surface divided by hand-bent brass wire cloisons filled with vitreous enamel, then fired, ground, and polished until wire and enamel are flush. Sold as a matched pair, these pieces stand approximately 30 centimetres tall and carry the characteristic weight of objects made to last across generations.
The copper body is light enough to lift with one hand yet has perceptible substance. After multiple firings, the surface is ground flat and burnished to a gentle sheen. Lotus and peony motifs fill the cells across a deep cobalt ground, their colors dense and saturated. Small variations in enamel tone between the two vases are the natural mark of handwork, not inconsistency. Each mouth is wide enough to accept a single long-stemmed flower.
Place this pair on a console, a mantel, or flanking a doorway where they can be seen from multiple angles. Their formal symmetry suits classical Chinese interior arrangements as well as modern rooms that benefit from a focal object with genuine visual weight. They require no special care: a soft dry cloth removes dust without risk to the enamel surface.
Cloisonné entered China via Silk Road contact with Byzantine enamelwork during the Yuan Dynasty and reached its apex under the Xuande Emperor in the fifteenth century. For six hundred years, Beijing imperial workshops refined the technique, producing pieces that found their way into palace collections across Asia and Europe. Lotus motifs in this tradition represent purity, while the peony signals abundance and high standing. These vases carry that symbolic register directly.
Do cloisonné vases fade over time? The vitreous enamel used in genuine cloisonné is glass fused to copper at high temperature. It does not fade, bleach, or deteriorate with exposure to indoor light and normal humidity. Unlike painted finishes or lacquer, the color in a cloisonné vase is fired into the material itself. A properly made pair maintains its depth of color indefinitely.
