Chinese box
Dublin Core
Title
Chinese box
Subject
[no text]
Description
This box is hidden inside the triangular compartment of the Florentine cabinet. It is intensely detailed, black in color with "gold-dust lacquer, elaborately wrought, the sides patterned with curved waves, and the silken cords hung with round crystals and tasseled in plaited metal threads" (Wilde 174-75). Though the item is small, its beauty in detail and effects on Dorian mark its importance in the text. It contains a "green paste waxy in lustre" with a smell that is "curiously heavy and persistent" (Wilde 175), heavily implying that the box is used to keep Dorian's opium or hashish. This connection between the box and China furthers the Orientalist decor in Dorian's library.
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The Qing dynasty box in the image is, admittedly, not the same color scheme as the box in Wilde's text. However, its elaborate carvings seem to represent a similar pattern to Dorian's box, and its description as a late 18th-early 19th century treasure box could align with Dorian's box (Box with Landscape Scenes). The box's lacquer is carved with details like bats and the Buddhist "Eight Treasures," meant to represent success and longevity (Box with Landscape Scenes). Dorian's box seems to represent moral decline and addiction in the novel.
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The Qing dynasty box in the image is, admittedly, not the same color scheme as the box in Wilde's text. However, its elaborate carvings seem to represent a similar pattern to Dorian's box, and its description as a late 18th-early 19th century treasure box could align with Dorian's box (Box with Landscape Scenes). The box's lacquer is carved with details like bats and the Buddhist "Eight Treasures," meant to represent success and longevity (Box with Landscape Scenes). Dorian's box seems to represent moral decline and addiction in the novel.
Creator
Oscar Wilde
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New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Extravagant Display: Chinese Art in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries," December 14, 2010–May 1, 2011
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New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Extravagant Display: Chinese Art in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries," December 14, 2010–May 1, 2011
Source
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Penguin, 2000.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Publisher
Penguin Books
The Met
The Met
Date
Wilde's text/ 1891
Penguin text/ 2000
18th-early 19th century
Penguin text/ 2000
18th-early 19th century
Contributor
Hannah Phillips
Rights
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Relation
Florentine Cabinet
Format
Chinese Box: H. 5 3/4 in. (14.6 cm); W. 9 3/8 in. (23.8 cm); L. 9 3/8 in. (23.8 cm)/ red, green, black lacquer
Language
English
Type
Text, still image
Identifier
[no text]
Coverage
[no text]
Citation
Oscar Wilde
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New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Extravagant Display: Chinese Art in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries," December 14, 2010–May 1, 2011, “Chinese box,” Objects and Interiority in Dorian Gray, accessed March 29, 2024, https://doriangrayarchiveeng578.omeka.net/items/show/11.