What are the characteristics of gold and silver wares?

Gold and silver vessels occupy an important position in historical relics and are important carriers of traditional culture and art in China. Gold and silver are precious metals, with moderate hardness, good ductility, easy hammering, bright natural color and difficult oxidation and discoloration, and are good materials for making handicrafts. Since human beings discovered and understood gold and silver, they have been processed into various gold and silver products.

Decorative patterns are mostly flowers and birds. Exquisite craftsmanship, sheet metal, casting, welding, cutting, grinding, riveting, electroplating, hammering, chiseling, inlaying and other technologies have been widely used in the Tang Dynasty. After the Song Dynasty, various crafts became more complicated and refined, and products combining gold and silver with lacquerware and wood products appeared. The gold thread woven by Dingling is inlaid with jewels, dragons and phoenixes, which is even more rare.

Among the large collection of gold and silver vessels in the Palace Museum, the emperors and queens in Qing Dynasty used the most gold and silver vessels, including ritual instruments, household utensils and various furnishings, as well as Buddha statues, niches, sacrificial vessels and utensils in religious relics.

These objects are made by casting, hammering, chiseling, silking, etc. Many gold and silver utensils are inlaid with precious gems, beautiful jade, jadeite and tourmaline. Most of these gold and silver vessels are unique in shape, exquisite in decoration, full of palace characteristics and of high historical and artistic value.