Gilt silver champleve lidded jar with ruby inlay, 18th century, Mughal empire-China Archive

Image Number: K1E000800N000000000PAB
Dynasty: Ming dynasty
Category: Enamel wares
Function: Furnisher
Material: Minerals/Metals/Silver
Description:
Silver and copper alloy tires, gilding, enamel covered cans, lower supports and seats. The hammer plate on the surface shows various patterned flower patterns. The flowers are inlaid with rubies, which reflect each other with the green color filled with enamel. Another point is painted with blue transparent and grass green opaque enamel glaze for decoration. No matter the shapes, patterns and various enamel glazes reflect the strong South Asian style, they should be the handicrafts of the Mongol Empire. The jar was covered for the sixth Panchen Lama to go to Beijing to wish the Emperor Qianlong seventy saints’ birthday and receive a gift of jade album and jade seal in Rehe. It is attached with a gold box with four characters of Han, Manchu, Mongolian and Tibetan in white silk and ink: “On the second day of August in the forty fifth year of Qianlong reign (1780), the emperor gave the Panchen Lama Erdeni Danshuke and returned to a jar with a green enamel cover inlaid with precious stones to store saffron.”