Royal Treasures and Antiquities

The museum’s artifacts reflect the cultural values, material and spiritual life of aristocracy and mandarin in the Nguyen dynasty during 143 years (1802 – 1945).

This "golden branch, jade leaves" of a pomegranate tree dating from the Dong Khanh reign, about 55 cm high. The tree has a trunk made of gold-plated wood. Orange-red petals and fruits, emerald green leaves, are all made of natural gem. The buds are made of red gems.

In addition to lacquer painting, Vietnamese painters introduced another form of traditional paint called painted and engraved painting. The Hue Museum of Royal Antiquities is preserving nearly 50 painted and engraved objects, lacquered objects dating from the first half of the 20th century, mainly decorative and fine arts objects.

Decorative items (especially painted and enraged wooden screens or lacquered wooden screens) display royal themes, such as stylized dragons, the eight treasures, a grand audience in the Hue Imperial City, or Hue girls dressed in long dresses by the pavilion).

Included in the group of fine arts lacquer objects are dishes, covered boxes, tea sets, wine sets, etc decorated with nature pictures such as the moon rising behind the mountain and bamboo hedges, a house on stilts by the river and a boat drifted downstream, a peasant girl in the field; or styles of four seasons.

Hue enamelled bronze wares were classified according to three main categories: Enamelled bronze motifs for exterior decoration at Hue Imperial palaces (including decorative details in shapes of dragons or clouds, attached on the main ridges and drooping ridges of Imperial palaces and triple gates of Nguyen royal tombs); there are also the ornamental panels on the roof walls at gables, hip ends, and drooping ridges of many palaces.

Enamelled bronze motifs for interior decoration at Hue Imperial palaces: include the horizontal hangings or couplets carved with Chinese scripts in the middle and stylized chrysanthemum, bats with tassels or coin on the brim.

Additionally, the technique of making enamelled bronze wares was also applied in making Chinese scripts which were combined in line on plates of wood or stone as couplets hung in the palace or attached on the gateways in front of the emperor's grave. Enamelled bronze wares for ritual ceremonies or household articles: This category is diversified in shapes, types and decorative topics.

It can be divided into two main groups. One of them is the ritual items in temples such as incense burners, betel trays, fruit trays, lampstands, etc. The second group is tea trays, spittoons, bowls, stemmed trays with lids, etc.

The Hue Royal Antiquities Museum is housing more than 100 pieces of enamelled bronze wares, originating from Hue Imperial palaces, produced under the reigns of emperor Minh Mang (1820-1841), Thieu Tri (1841-1847) and Tu Duc (1848-1883). This collection concentrated the most abundant and valuable enamelled bronze wares of the Nguyen dynasty.

Silver wares under the Nguyen Dynasty could be divided into two types: worship items and fine arts items in which the fine arts ones make up a large quantity. The royal fine arts items were used to display in the Nguyen royal palaces but they also had functional values like other household utensils.

Silver material was also used to decorate some royal utensils such as bowls, porcelain pots edged with silver, porcelain bowl-hookahs edged with silver, wooden trays edged with silver, royal robes decorated with silver, etc.

The Nguyen silver wares were mostly decorated with imperial motifs such as dragons, phoenixes and stylized foliage, etc.

The silver objects displayed in this exhibition are only a small part of the silver wares collection under the Nguyen Dynasty presently stored at Hue Museum of Royal Antiquities.

In addition to the copper seal and wooden seals, the museum displays two of the special ivory seals made during the reign of King Tu Duc, the fourth emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty. He was the Nguyen’s longest-reigning king, ruling 36 years from 1847 to 1883. His temple name is Nguyen Duc Tong. Under the Nguyen Dynasty (1802 – 1945), from kings to state and local functionaries used seals.

Seals were considered the king and regime’s symbol of jurisdiction. Nguyen dynasty created, named and granted many different kinds of seals such as: royal/national seal, high-ranked mandarin seal, mandarin’s office seal, etc., based on the position and level of the owners as well as function of each document which need to be signed by seal.

The second ivory seal is now being displayed in Long An Palace, the main exhibition building of Hue Royal Antiquities Museum. Each ivory seal displayed in this palace is put into a box which has a similar function of the seal box in the Tomb of Tu Duc.