Royal Style: The jewelry of the Qing court

A special exhibition of four years' preparation, "Empresses of China's Forbidden City: The art and life of the empresses of Qing Dynasty", is on display at the Peabody Essex Museum in Boston, US, covering the archetypes of historical characters in the popular Chinese TV series "Story of Yanxi Palace" and "Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace." The following two sections will give you a glimpse of the jewelry of the Qing court In the historical records and archives, the imperial concubines were often shrouded in the light of the emperor, so files about court women in the Qing dynasty are far less than those of the male, especially compared with the emperor People still can catch their elegance from their court jewelry.

Since the jewelry of the Qing court was not designed to merely express the beauty of materials but instead their moral connotations The jewelry of the Qing court reveals diverse styles through its adoption of certain elements of the Han-style costume on the one hand, and through using western materials like enamel and glass and employing the western techniques of lapidary and inlay on the other Despite the traditional patriarchal society, women in the court of the Qing dynasty still had an outstanding position. Source