Incense Box

Asian Influence over Western Wallpaper Production

-Villa Terrace Project

3D Metals, UW-Madison

Jee Young Han

According to “Wallpaper in America” written by Catherine Lynn, the idea of replicating major works by fine artists had occurred to several wallpaper manufacturers in France well before the turn of the nineteenth century. For example, during 1780s, Arthur et Robert reproduced paintings by Louis Michel van Loo and Hubert Robert in sizes appropriate for use over doorways. Their polychromed subjects presaged those of many later panoramic papers—populated landscapes of the waterside, with Italianate architectural elements. London wallpaper makers as well imitated these elements and relied on the works of fine artists; however, they imitated prints after paintings. More important precedents were non-repeating panoramic effects lied in Chinese papers. Chinese papers, with their continuous, non-repeating scenes showing landscapes and flowering trees, were important antecedents for the nineteenth-century scenic formula. Their boldness of scale and freshness of coloring was suggestive to French manufacturers. Also, the shallowness of space in most of their papers had very different effects from most of the nineteenth-century French scenics.

Zuber introduced “Décor Chinois” in 1832. The design by Eugene Ehrmann and Hermann Zipelius relies on Chinese precedents for motifs and composition, but the French factory used the Ombré technique, which had been its specialty since 1820, to achieve delicate color effects rather than attempting to imitate the linearity of the painted Chinese models. However, the general sense of composition affected by Asian perspective presents viewer a strong exotic atmosphere, and the rich coloring of western palette completes it.

The small statues carved out of ivory, Buddhism related craft works and other Asian oriented works made beautiful harmony along with the Décor Chinois. I would like to make an object that represents well-mixed cultural sense of Asian and that of Western.

My first idea is making 향갑(香匣), an incense box in a form of small charm. Korean women decorated their outfit by having 노리개, consists of colorful knots and threads often with 향갑 or 탁(鐸), a sphere shaped bell. Royal family used a golden incense box and gold sphere decorated with precious gemstones. Normal people used simple 노리개 or semi-precious one for special occasions. Sometimes it has handed down across the generations. This point is why I thought it has similarity as a western necklace handed down in family for a long time.

1. I want to use 포목상감 (Pomok Sangam), a Korean traditional technique to give strong sense of Asian culture.

2. I want to use Lily and/or Rose as motifs of this project, since Lily is a national flower of France, and Rose is that of both England and America. Also, the yellow and red flowers appeared in the Décor Chinois seems like one of the Rose family.