What jewelry the concubines of the Qing Dynasty wore, this is a mysterious thing, after all, it is very difficult for us to know about the deep palace courtyard.
At present, what we can see for posterity, in addition to the treasure hall of the Forbidden City, is the photo left by Empress Dowager Cixi.
Judging from the treasures in the collection of the Forbidden City, the jewelry of the concubines of the Qing Dynasty, like the social development of the Qing Dynasty, has experienced simplicity to luxury.
Several empresses in the early Qing Dynasty lived frugally, decorated with flowers and not wearing gold and silver jewelry. Empress Xiaoxian of the Qianlong period also only wore tongcao as an exemplary role, urging the harem concubines to be frugal. With the stability of the Qing Dynasty's rule and the orderly development of the economy, Houfei jewelry was transformed from practical to aesthetic.
The middle of the Qing Dynasty was the golden age of Qianlong's prosperity. Lifestyles have changed dramatically, and jewelry making is on fire. There were also envoys from various countries and localities to supply the Qing Dynasty court with precious jewelry, which was continuously sent to the Qing Palace, which greatly changed the pursuit of jewelry by the harem concubines, and also became a new equipment for the harem women to compete for glory.
In the late Qing Dynasty, Cixi was the most representative, which was also different from the position she held in the early Qing Dynasty. Coupled with her extravagance and living expenses. Food, clothing, shelter and transportation must meet her standards of pursuing "beauty". The fineness of its jewelry production is rare in the world.
Tungsten, is a symbol of status, divided into phoenix, full of tungsten and half tungsten, their difference is the degree of complexity, full of tungsten is the whole tungsten, a total of 15 pieces of tungsten flowers, and half tungsten is only 7 pieces, and the phoenix is decorated more complex, and there is a phoenix pattern is called phoenix. Various gemstones and beads are embedded in the hat rack to form various auspicious patterns. Only the empress, the empress dowager, can wear a phoenix.
Hairpins, judging from the ornaments left behind by the Treasure Museum of the Forbidden City, are mostly made of gold, jade, precious stones, pearls, etc. The hairpin head is made of different thicknesses of copper wire to make flower branches, and then the gems are made of lace and copper coins.
For example, the existing "white jade one stroke shou zi hairpin" in the Forbidden City is a "shou" character carved into a stroke with a piece of pure mutton fat white jade, and the hairpin is the last stroke of the "shou" character.
Head flower: The head flower is the main jewelry of the Qing Palace concubines combing their hair buns, most of which are inlaid with jewelry.
The Ruby String Rice Bead Head Flower, the Feather Dot Inlaid Pearl Year Han Sanyou (Pine, Bamboo, Plum) Head Flower, the Sapphire Dragonfly Head Flower, the Ruby Flower, the Golden Silk Double Dragon Play Pearl Head Flower, the Golden Inlaid Rice Bead Double Inlay Head Flower, etc., are all known for their exquisite production and realistic images.
Tassel: A piece of "rice bead double happy character tassel" exhibited in the Treasure Hall of the Forbidden City was worn by the empress during the marriage of the Tongzhi Emperor. At the top of the tassel is a large bat with feathers dotted green, with two small gold rings in its mouth, and a feathered ruyi cloud head connected below.
Most of the tassels treasured by the Qing Palace were worn by the empress, and the number of beads with phoenix titles was the largest.
Like a dragon and a phoenix, they are called "dragons and phoenixes", the emperor refers to himself as the true dragon tianzi, and the empress is the phoenix of the king of birds. The feudal emperor wanted to have more children and grandchildren, so the empress's headdress was mostly in the shape of a phoenix and a phoenix brooding.
The Golden Covenant, which was worn by the Qing Dynasty empress dowager when wearing imperial clothes, was worn by the imperial crown first. The gold covenant consists of two parts: the golden hoop and the beads hanging at the back, and the number of knots of the golden hoop and the number of rows of beads reflect the level of the concubine's rank.
Flat square, Manchu women are quite distinctive, combing hairstyles to use a horizontal hairpin to be fixed continuously, that is, flat square. Most of the flat squares used in the court were made of jade, but there were also products such as coral, jade, gold inlaid jade and jade inlaid gemstones.
In addition, the headdress of the queen concubine also includes Jewelry with Manchu characteristics such as Lezi, Tungsten Flowers, Knotty Needles, Old Crow Scoops, and Ear Scoops.
These jewelry all show the Qing Dynasty concubine's pursuit of beauty, as well as the designer's craftsmanship spirit of "excellence, attention to detail, the pursuit of perfection and detail".