Gold is a precious metal that we are all too familiar with, but in the long five thousand years of civilization, the industrious and intelligent Chinese people, with gold, invented an amazing technology.
Early gold products can be traced back to the lower culture of Xiajiadian and the Siba culture, the gold products of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties became more and more extensive, and during the Warring States period, there were exquisite wrong gold and silver craftsmanship, and the gold craft of the Han and Tang Dynasties was even more blinding.
As long as it is a cultural relic associated with gold, it has its own luxurious aura. Today's talk is the luxury of luxury, not only exquisite appearance, but also particularly time-consuming and laborious, expensive, especially for the use of the royal family and nobles, even the emperor feels that it is too luxurious, and then sooner or later it will be finished, and ordered to ban production.
The wonderful combination of gold and lacquer: the gold and silver flat-off process
As early as the Han Dynasty, the ancients had the decorative process of attaching gold to lacquerware, beating gold and silver into extremely thin sheets, cutting out patterns, and pasting them on lacquerware. Although it is good to look good, it is that the gold leaf is too easy to be worn and shed.
Gold leaf silver buckle lacquered
Gold and silver flat off process, to put it simply is an upgraded version of the gold paste. Craftsmen melted gold and silver, made into foils, and cut them into various patterns.
The gold and silver foil is then applied to the surface of the lacquerware, and then applied two or three layers of paint, which are dried and then finely ground to expose the gold and silver foil under the lacquer layer. This kind of decorative production, which is commonly applied to lacquerware, has formed the "gold and silver flat off" technology.
Gold and silver pingwenqin
Gold and silver flat off is generally divided into two styles, one is the pattern and the paint bottom in the same plane, one is the pattern higher than the paint base, the process is more complex than the ordinary gold paste, the gold foil used for flat off is also thicker than the gold material, you can carve out the decorative texture on the gold and silver, forming a more exquisite and luxurious visual effect.
Tang Dynasty gold and silver flat off the bird ribbon striped copper mirror
When we appreciate the lacquerware works of the Tang Dynasty, we can see that the luster of gold and silver shines on the black lacquer surface, which fully shows the elegance and preciousness of the utensils.
History and development of the flat-off process
In the sixteenth century BC, the Shang Dynasty appeared hammering gold pieces as a decorative process, due to backward technology, gold pieces can only be simply attached to the surface of the utensils to express exquisite ornate.
In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, this kind of decoration technology was developed into a "gold and silver mistake", that is, the gold and silver wire pattern was embedded in the engraving on the surface of the utensil, and the Warring States copper pot unearthed in Shaanxi used this advanced technology.
Tang Dynasty gold and silver flat off the luan phoenix mirror
The gold and silver craft of the Tang Dynasty flourished and reached its peak, with 14 gold farms and 56 silver farms in the country. The utensils that use the flat-off process, which are also gold and silver and complicated processes, are doomed to these utensils that the common people can not touch, and basically pay tribute to the royal family.
The royal family, in turn, rewarded the ministers with these tributes, or as diplomatic gifts to neighboring countries, which belonged to a certain class of haute couture luxuries.
Lacquer-backed gold and silver flat off octagonal mirror
According to the literature, there were hundreds of craftsmen who made gold and silverware and lacquerware inlays for Yang Guifei at that time, and among the items given to An Lushan by Tang Xuanzong, there were also many daily necessities made by using the gold and silver flat-cutting process.
Gold and silver flat off the bowl
Banned for being too luxurious
Gold and silver were highly prosperous in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, but the beauty was beautiful, the cost was too high, the peace and prosperity, the national strength can still support the luxury of the princes and nobles, but a country with excessive luxury of the ruling class is doomed to not last long.
After the outbreak of the "Anshi Rebellion", the Tang Dynasty fell into years of war, the treasury was empty, the economy was also greatly impacted, the people lived in deep water, if the nobles were still happy and happy, the Tang Dynasty would really be finished, so Tang Suzong and Tang Dynasty Emperors both issued edicts prohibiting the production of gold and silver flat products.
Gold and silver flat peeling box
Since then, the production of gold and silver flat off has declined sharply, the five generations have declined, and eventually extinct, the current existing gold and silver flat off products are concentrated in the Tang to five generations period, the flat off process has become a masterpiece.
The Northern Song Dynasty depicts the golden flower bird pattern sandalwood scriptures
Fortunately, there are still these exquisite cultural relics handed down, and today's descendants have been able to restore the glory and agility of this Tang Dynasty royal culture through more advanced industrial technology.
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