Some time ago, the Palace Museum's "Shangzhi Qionghua - Treasure Art Exhibition That Began in the Eighteenth Century" should have attracted the attention of many enthusiasts.
Queen Mary Louise Ruby Diamond Full Set Jewelry Replica
1811 Gold, silver, white sapphires, zircon and garnets
Chaumet Collection
Queen Mary Louise micro-mosaic full set of daytime jewelry
1810 Gold and blue ancient glass embedded with miniature mosaics
Collection of the Louvre Museum in Paris
But like gold and silver jewelry, is not the patent of Westerners, in the ancient Chinese aristocratic family, the use of gold to create some jewelry, utensils is also extremely common, and the process is not lagging behind the West.
Ming blonde hairpin
Length 12.1cm width 5.7cm
Qing 80% golden gourd
Length 17.2cm, width 8.4cm
So here's the question:
How exactly are they made?
Below, Xiaobian will take you for three minutes,
See the ten crafts of gold and silverware manufacturing!
1. Fan casting
Gold or silver is melted into a juice and the utensils are made by means of mold casting. In the Shang zhou period, when the bronze casting industry was highly developed, this method was simply handy for craftsmen, and the products were more delicate.
The gold fence excavated from the Liujiahe Shang Tomb in Beijing, observed from the size and section of the vessel, was cast. It is the earliest known gold casting on the mainland, confirming that the continent mastered the casting technology of gold more than three thousand years ago.
Shang Jin Zhen
The Liujiahe Shang Tomb in Beijing was excavated
2. Hammer (yè)
One of the traditional techniques of ancient gold and silver craftsmanship, it is still used today. The hammering process takes advantage of the highly malleable characteristics of gold and silver, hammers gold and silver blocks, beats them into gold and silver pieces, and then makes various shapes according to requirements. This process has few consumables, but the disadvantage is that the utensils are easily deformed.
Don Capricorn Pattern Gold Cup
The Capricorn orb raised in the center of the cup's innersole is a hammering process
3. Welding
Welding methods are commonly used in various metalworking processes. First, the two parts that need to be welded together are temporarily glued together with adhesive. Then put "solder" on the adhesive place (solder can be used in gold and silver, but also in copper, tin and other metals). Heating and melting the solder, after cooling, the two parts are connected together~ ~ ~
Welding with copper-doped solder, after a long period of corrosion, the weld will appear green rust marks. For example, in the Tang Dynasty's Leju pattern eight-edged silver belt handle cup, green rust has appeared on the edge of the character pattern and the welding gap on the handle.
Tang Trick Pattern Eight-Edged Silver Cup
Height 6.7 cm, caliber 6.9-7.4 cm, foot diameter 4.4 cm, weight 285 g
4. Riveting
The riveting method and the welding method have the same purpose, both are to connect the attachment with the main body. However, unlike the welding method, the riveting method is to chisel out small holes in the two parts that need to be connected, and then wear the nail (the material of the nail is generally the same as the material of the main body of the utensil), and the two ends of the nail are flattened and attached to the wall of the device to achieve the purpose of fixation. Riveting method is generally used in the combination of buttons, hinges, handles, ring handles, buckles and lifting beams and other places combined with the body.
Aromatherapy balls were unearthed from the cellars of Hejia Village in Shaanxi Province
Small rivets at the joint can be clearly seen
5. Engraving
Also known as engraving (is it a second to understand?) ), is a further processing technique carried out after the utensils are formed. It can be carved out of the plane, or the gold and silver around the pattern can be "hammered" off to form a relief effect. In general, the pattern carved by the sharp knife is more delicate, while the pattern carved by the blunter hammer is relatively rounded. With several hammer knives of different sharpness, you can create colorful patterns.
The Western Han Dynasty's new "Pingnong Wei Zhang" silver seal
The pattern on the shell of the turtle is carved
6. Compilation
"Dream of the Red Chamber" 73rd "Miss Cowardly Does Not Ask Lei Jinfeng", it is said that the second miss of Jia Fu, Jia Yingchun's Tired Jinfeng, was stolen by the old mother to gamble. What is this "golden phoenix"? It is a phoenix made of weaving process. The gold and silver weaving process is divided into two categories: plane weaving and three-dimensional weaving, which is very cumbersome.
Flat weaving is made of gold and silver wire as thin as a hair, which is coiled and welded to form various patterns, the same as the "filigree" to be mentioned later. The three-dimensional weaving must be molded into various figures, birds and animals or utensils with charcoal in advance, coiled with gold and silver wire, and then the charcoal mold wrapped with gold and silver wire is placed in the fire, and the charcoal mold inside is burned, and it becomes a three-dimensional gold and silver jewelry and gold and silverware.
Clear silver silk double dragon play beaded sunflower petal box
Height 6.3cm, caliber 14cm
7. Filigree
Mainly used for gold and silver decoration, the method is to pound into thin pieces of gold and silver cut into thin strips, slowly twisted into silk. There is also a practice of making filigree called "plucking silk" (not the plucking of sweet potatoes!). ), is to slowly squeeze the gold and silver through a tapered hole, from which the gold and silver are extracted into a wire of gold and silver. Thicker silk can also be directly pounded. Using filigree to enclose a certain pattern and then weld it to the surface of the utensils is an excellent decoration.
Eastern Han Dynasty Filial Piety Tianlu and Ward Off Evil Spirits
8. Gilded
Products made using gilding methods have appeared as early as the pre-Qin period, but the literature records gilding techniques as late as the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The practice is to mix pure gold and mercury in a certain proportion into "amalgam" (commonly known as "gold paste"), spread evenly on the utensils, and then bake them in a fire. The mercury evaporates in heat, leaving only a thin layer of gold, which fits closely to the watch and shows no trace of deliberate decoration. The utensils thus become gorgeous and beautiful.
Tang gilded hollow flying red ball road pattern silver cage
Collection of Famen-ji Temple Museum
9. Wrong gold
Inlaid with metal wire, ancient called "wrong". The wrong gold and silver process is to use gold wire or gold sheets to inlay various gorgeous patterns or words on the cast bronze, and then polish the watch with the instrument to form gold thread, silver wire pattern and text.
Xinmang "one knife flat five thousand" sword coin
The shining word "one knife" is "wrong" with the wrong gold process
10. Soldering
The raw material of the soldering method is very special, it is a gold bead. How are gold beads made? The gold can be cut into tiny pieces, heated or ground between two planks to form a bead. It is also possible to use the "fried bead" method (also known as the "molten bead" method): the gold melt is dropped into warm water, and the gold liquid will condense into gold beads of different sizes. The gold beads made can be welded or glued to the surface of the utensils, and the use value is very high.
Tang Jin comb back (partial)
The filigree-enclosed gold leaves are studded with gold beads
Originally published in: Mei Plastic
| Times Township Weekly |