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Chinese Toilet Set
Two toilet sets made of silver filigree that belonged to Catherine
the Great have survived in the collection of the Hermitage
Museum.
One toilet set comprising 32 pieces was made in China, probably, in Canton.
The set includes a table mirror, boxes for cosmetics, perfume
bottles, different caskets, boxes and trays for a lady’s toilet trinkets
and pins, as well as table decorations.
The objects of this set are made of almost pure thin silver wire. The
mirror in the set has the shape of a Chinese table screen on a stand.
On the reverse side of the glass, under silver amalgam, it is decorated
with painting showing a pair of pheasants walking in the
grass and surrounded by branches with bright flowers. This technique was
brought to China from Europe in the early 18th century. The
Chinese mirrors with painting on the reverse side of glass
were very popular in Europe in the middle of the century. These mirrors
usually hung on the walls as interior decoration and were rather used
to reflect the light than as looking-glasses. Details of the frame of
the mirror really remind us of a lace. They are made in a Chinese
tradition: we see dragons, lions, flowers and insects on springs. Mother-of-pearl
and crystal beads, feathers of a kingfisher
and peacock are added as a bright inlay. The designs of the
filigree network are repeated in the mirror frame and boxes and other
pieces of the set. The objects have European as well as
Chinese forms, and traditional Chinese symbols and ornaments are used
in the decoration.
Boxes, caskets and eggs for perfume are modelled in European shapes. Crab-shaped
boxes are of form unknown in Europe but typical of Chinese art. The Chinese
thought that a crab looks like a tiger’s head and thus it can ward
off evil. Medicine made of crabs kept skin looking young so it was natural
to make cosmetic boxes shaped as crabs. The crabs are standing on leaf-shaped
trays. Some objects topped with handles in the form of open pomegranates,
which in China were symbols of the wish to have many sons.
The perfume bottles have a globular body and a long taper neck. That was
the shape of rosewater sprinklers brought to
China from the Near East. Some of the objects like big octagonal caskets,
boxes in the shape of a pomegranate, leaf-shaped stands are made of airy
openwork filigree as thin as a lace. Other objects have a base made of
silver sheet, gilded and then dressed all over with network of filigree
which is not soldered, but is fixed mechanically on the ribs of the objects.
That’s the way how cosmetic boxes and perfume bottles are made. Many
filigree objects are following the Rococo style. Their wires have S- and
C-shaped design. Other ornaments are outlined as flowers, garlands or
branches, and some of them are decorated with enamels or paint. Such details
like bouquets of flowers are fixed with thin wires on a filigree net.
The colours are usually bright - blue and green - contrasting with the
gilded or white silver background. Such device is typical of China. The
objects of the toilet set were made in pairs and organized on a table
symmetrically around the mirror. The exquisite and fragile pieces are
made in such a way that we still admire the skill of the Chinese
jewellers: they look like a silver lace. The granulation
is rarely used, but sometimes we can see additional decoration with gilding,
enamelling, painting or with feathers and silk. The Chinese filigree has
not still been surpassed in workmanship and thinness.
Apart from articles for the toilet of a lady there are two groups of decorative
sculptures included into the set - pairs of birds on stands with branches
and trees. They are brightened with paint, silk and feathers.
The elaborate mirror and toilet set of Chinese make of the mid-18th
century are still unique in the fineness of execution and
completeness. Only few separate objects can be found in other collections.
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Framed table mirror with painting
1740s-1750s
Larger view
Pair of baskets
1740s-1750s
Larger view
Pair of rosewater sprinklers
1740s-1750s
Larger view
Boxes
1740s-1750s
Larger view
A pair of crab-shaped boxes on leaf trays
1740s-1750s
Larger view
Tray in the shape of a leaf
1740s-1750s
Larger view
Two table decorations in the shape of
a pair of birds
1740s-1750s
Larger view
Toilet set of 32 objects
1740s-1750s
Larger view
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