Hat Box

About the work

In Korea, Confucian gentlemen wore finely woven, horsehair hats known as kat. These small conical-shaped hats rode atop the head, rather than around the brow as in the West. In order to hold the hair firmly in place, they also wore an inner hat known as a tanggeon. This spectacular box, entirely encrusted with pieces of abalone shell, was used to store a tanggeon. Korean craftsmen used a special technique to create such objects. First a wooden box was coated with several layers of lacquer, onto which pieces of abalone shell were affixed. They then continued to coat the box with lacquer until the shell was completely covered. After the lacquer dried, they laboriously polished the surface with charcoal until the iridescent shell was revealed. Typical of Korean style, the mother-of-pearl is broken and reassembled in the manner seen here.

Hat Box is available in the public domain via Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication .