Beautiful Cloisonne
We showed you part of our cloisonne collection before. Today we’d like to show you this beautiful cloisonne piece:
This is a Cloisonne “Ruyi”. Ruyi 如意 literally means “As [you] wish”. As described by wiki, it is:
“a curved decorative object that serves as a ceremonial sceptre in Chinese Buddhism or a talisman symbolizing power and good fortune in Chinese folklore. A traditional ruyi has a long S-shaped handle and a head fashioned like a fist, cloud, or lingzhi mushroom. Ruyi are constructed from diverse materials. For example, the Palace Museum in Beijing has nearly 3000 ruyi that are variously made from valuable materials like gold, silver, iron, bamboo, wood, ivory, coral, rhinoceros horn, lacquer, crystal, jade, and precious gems. The “ruyi” image frequently appears as a motif in Asian art.”
Some also believe that ruyi originally were used as a back scratcher!
However, we think this cloisonne ruyi is too beautiful and delicate to be used as a scratcher…
Ruyi is often decorated with peaches (桃, the fruit of longevity), bats (蝠, for good luck), chinese coins (for prosperity).
This is the shape of Lingzhi mushroom, which also represents health and longevity.
This ruyi scepter is made with cloisonne by soldering metal threads and adding layers of enamel, and decorated with various gemstones. It showcase the quality of design and workmanship.
Since it has such a good meaning, it makes a popular gift.