Box

Small box with a lid is a beautiful example of enamel ornamentation on jade. The entire outer surface of box and lid illustrates the floral design, which has been decorated with enameled in bright red and green colours, while the outline has been worked with gold wire. Its four compartments give the impression that this box might have been used as a spice box or for keeping smaller precious things. In enamellings new form are created and the beauty of the base material is largely enhanced, though the elements used do not undergo such synthesis that they lose their individual identity and create an absolutely new thing. Embellishment and rendering of a restricted number of patterns, either traditional or innovative are elements that dominate the art of enameling. Besides, what enameling creates is usually a user’s thing. It is thus that enameling, though a finer art, is usually classed as craft.