A kind of gilt copper coin buckle
The gilt copper coin buckle is a kind of coin buckle worn by people in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of my country. This kind of buttons can be seen from the palace costumes of the Qing Dynasty collected in the Palace Museum to the ancestral clothes preserved in the homes of rural people. In recent years, the author has paid attention to collecting gilt copper coin-type buckles. Currently, thousands of such buckles of different styles, editions, and colors have been collected in southern Shanxi alone. Through the sorting and research of these gilt copper machine-made coin buckles, the author found that they were popular in a specific historical period in my country. Their shapes convey a lot of information about traditional Chinese culture. Typical individuals among them are worthy of reference from the folk art. Appreciate it from an aesthetic perspective.
1. The popularity of gilt copper coin buckles
1. The popularity of gilt copper coin buckles is related to the fact that our country entered the special historical period of Tongguang Zhongxing
After the Opium War, the Western economy penetrated into China and began to stimulate China's economy. This enabled the economy to recover during the Tongzhi and Guangxu dynasties of the Qing Dynasty, and our country entered a period known in history as the "Tongguang Zhongxing". During that period, the Westernization faction within the Qing government launched the "Westernization Movement" across the country. The Westernization Movement aimed to introduce Western technology, develop new industries, and enhance national strength in order to maintain the feudal rule of the Qing government. The Westernization Movement brought our country into the development stage of opening up to the outside world and introducing foreign investment for the first time in history. At that stage, many economic and trade institutions called "foreign banks" established by foreign businessmen in China were engaged in import and export trade and the production of industrial products with China. Considerable development. Picture 1 and Picture 2 The back of the gilt copper coin buckle has the words "Jialuweizhi" and "Lihe Foreign Firm" on the back. This was the name of a foreign foreign firm in China at that time.
The German Carlowitz established a foreign bank in Guangzhou in 1845 before the start of my country's Westernization Movement, and named it "Carlowitz". In 1855, the bank was renamed "Li". and foreign companies." In 1877, this foreign bank set up its head office in Shanghai in the favorable foreign economic atmosphere of my country's Westernization Movement, and later set up branches and branches in more than ten major cities in my country. During the Tongguang ZTE period, there were hundreds of foreign trading institutions with China, such as the Ludwig Co., Ltd. Their trade in China included many kinds, among which coin buckles with gilt copper mechanisms were among them. Gold-plated copper coin buckles were initially imported from foreign companies. Later, as these foreign companies deepened their trade with China, many foreign companies established factories in my country and began production.
2. The popularity of gilt copper coin buckles is related to the reform of my country’s currency system at that time
At the end of feudal society, foreign currencies flowed into our country intermittently. By the 19th century, foreign trade silver dollars A large amount of them began to enter our country's circulation and directly impacted our country's currency. Foreign-made silver coins are also called "foreign money" or "big ocean" by Chinese people. They are made by machines. They are shaped like a silver round plate with a certain thickness and diameter, with a picture on the front and words on the back. Because the silver dollar has unified standards, is valued, easy to trade, and beautifully made, it has obvious advantages over the two main coins of silver implemented in the Qing Dynasty and the auxiliary coins that have remained unchanged for more than two thousand years, so the people are happy to accept them. In 1887 (the thirteenth year of Guangxu), my country introduced a coin minting machine and began to produce silver coins. In 1900 (the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu), Guangdong began to produce copper rounds shaped like silver coins with the permission of the Qing government. The issuance and circulation of copper coins give ordinary people in our country the opportunity to directly experience the ease of use and beauty of machine-made coins. Along with the epoch-making changes in my country's currency system, gilt copper machine-made coin buckles are also favored by Chinese people and proudly popular in the country because of their similarities with metal machine-made coins in terms of shape characteristics, production technology, and aesthetic conveyance.
3. The popularity of gilt copper machine-made coin buckles is related to the Chinese people's pursuit of new fashions brought by the industrial revolution at that time
Although Tongguang Zhongxing cannot be regarded as a member of the Manchu ruling class It is impossible to prosper the decaying feudal dynasty by independent actions. However, the Qing Dynasty's economy improved at that time. At the same time, the Qing government's Westernization Movement and the advanced Western thought and culture were also introduced into our country and gradually accepted by the Chinese people. People under the shackles of feudalism began to liberate their minds and began to pursue new trends of thought and new fashions brought by the industrial revolution. The gilt copper coin buckle was a novel and beautiful civilian product with characteristics of Western industrial civilization that people of that period were happy to enjoy.
2. The shape of the gilt-copper machine-made coin buckle
1. The shape of the gilt-copper machine-made coin buckle
"The gilt-copper machine-made coin buckle The title "buckle" basically defines its shape from the material (copper), surface treatment (gilt), and style (machine-made coin type). Figure 3 is a typical gilt copper machine-made coin buckle, which consists of a buckle plate and a button. The gusset plate is made of copper plate-shaped material and is stamped by machine. It has two sides: front and back. The button is made of copper linear material, formed into a circle, and then connected to the back of the gusset plate by welding. There are embossed decorative patterns on the front of the gussets, and the surfaces are all gilded, but some are rarely gilded. There are words and marks on the back of the gusset plate. Most of these words are in Yang script and rarely in Yin script. Overall, the shape of the gusset plate is very similar to the copper machine-made coins commonly known as "copper plates" during the Republic of China. Copper gilt machine coin buckles have different uses and sizes. The diameter of the buckle plate is 11~27.5mm, the thickness of the buckle plate is 1~2.3mm, and the weight of the buckle is 0.7~8g.
The gilt copper machine-made coin-type buckles are different from the metal buttons handmade by folk artists in individual workshops and the cloth buttons hand-knitted by folk women in any period in Chinese history. There are also metal buttons that are similar in shape to gilded copper machine-made coin buttons (some traditional silver buttons are also composed of buckle plates and buttons), but they are definitely not machine-made, and the machines are completely controlled by workers. Standardized and mass-produced in factories.
2. The front graphics of the gold-plated copper coin buckle
The front of the gold-plated copper coin buckle is mainly composed of graphics. According to the actual objects collected by the author, there are more than 140 an independent graphic. These graphics can be roughly divided into subject types such as characters, animals, plants, scenery, still life, font symbols, foreign styles, etc. Characters include traditional Chinese opera, classical mythology, auspicious and historical figures; animals include dragons, unicorns, lions, tigers, camels, deer, horses, cows, sheep, cats, cranes, wild geese, herons, mandarin ducks, quails, and pigeons , magpies, swallows, bats, butterflies, grasshoppers, goldfish, etc.; plant categories include peonies, plum blossoms, pomegranates, peaches, bergamot and various flowers and plants, etc.; still life categories include the Dark Eight Immortals, cornucopia, Bogu, etc.; font symbols include Fu, Wealth, wealth, longevity, 囍, nobility, Panchang, 卍, etc.; the foreign style category includes famous figures from foreign countries, advanced means of transportation from foreign countries, and logos from foreign countries, etc.
The most common gilt-copper machine-made coin buckles are graphics with traditional Chinese aesthetic taste. This is because foreign companies pay attention to absorbing our country’s traditional culture in the process of local production and marketing in my country, and especially choose what the Chinese people are happy to accept. The result of auspicious graphics. For example, there are many classic auspicious graphics such as "purple swallows flying together", "magpies wishing birthdays", "melons and melons", "blessings are in front of you", "more than one year after another", "gold and jade in the house", etc. in the gilt copper mechanism coin buckle. Be commonly used.
3. The text on the back of the gold-plated copper coin buckle
The back of the gold-plated copper coin buckle is mainly composed of text. These words are generally marked in both Chinese and English fonts. It contains the name of the producer, the quality assurance of the product and the place where the product was manufactured.
The Chinese character usually refers to the manufacturer, that is, the name of the foreign company at that time, such as: Jialuwich, Bushi Douxing, Canafo Foreign Trade, Dias Co., Feili Shimao Co., Yifeng, Guangfeng, Wanshunfeng , Huafeng, Li & Fung, Fulong, Shun Jinlong, Shuncheng, Shunli, Shunfa, Xinglong Yangxing, Xingxing, Yili, Meili, Melchers, Senli, Trusty, Shengli, Ruisheng, Hengchang , Hengyi, Shichang, Dechang, Yuchang, Wanchang, Sanchang Yangxing, Sanping Yangxing, Changheng, Yijixing, Yihe, Miyi, Yabo, Lulin, Xinyuan, Xinyi Yangxing, Yiwei, Yee Cheong & Co., Yihe & Co., Tianfu & Co., Lihe & Co., Yuanheng & Co., Qianxin & Co., Henry & Co., Aili & Co., Rui Kee & Co., Qing De Sheng Kee, Zhuji Co., Ltd., etc. The English words are usually the quality assurance content of the product: RICH? ), WARRANTED (guaranteed, worthy), QUALITY?BEST (best quality), PATENT (patent). The words about the place of manufacture on the back of the gilt copper coin buckle are sparse compared to the name of the producer and the quality assurance of the product. There are only a few place names such as Shanghai, Tianjin, LONDON, and JAPAN in the author's collection. The text on the back of the gilt copper coin buckle is mostly in Chinese and English, usually in convolutional reading, most of it is in yang script, and only a few are in yin script. In addition to the text, the back of the gilt copper coin buckle also has symbols deliberately made by the manufacturer, such as: *, ●, ☆, ◎, ⊙, +, etc. These symbols are either interspersed with or symmetrical to the text, making the copper The back of the gold-plated coin buckle forms a whole with words as its beauty.
Part of the gilt copper coin buckle with exotic characteristics is an early imported product