S925 Silver Nine-tailed Fox Cloud Pattern Bracelet

The nine-tailed fox is recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas: on Qingqiu mountain there is a beast shaped like a fox with nine tails, and its voice is like a child's. Later books made it stranger and stranger, now an auspicious sign, now a portent of the uncanny, the account swinging back and forth. Pattern design ignores all that and takes the form instead: many tails, a light body, a glance back over the shoulder. On Han dynasty relief stones it usually sits beside the Queen Mother of the West, along with the three-legged crow and the toad, a minor figure in that particular divine order.

The chain itself uses the scrolling cloud pattern. That motif is common on objects from the Warring States through Qin and Han: a line that coils and closes in a small hook. It does not depict anything specific, only the movement of vapour, which is why it sits comfortably on any object at all. It is not the same as the cloud-and-thunder pattern, which is angular and turns in measured steps; the scrolling cloud is round, its line carried along as if by wind. The former is mostly found on Shang and Zhou bronzes, the latter flourishes on objects from the Warring States onwards.

The nine tails are where the work is. The tips are the finest part and tend to come short in casting, so they have to be checked one by one — whether a tip has broken off, whether the layers have run together. Silver flows well and holds detail, provided the mould was fine enough. The fox's head is small and the ears smaller; half a hair's difference in the depth of the ear and the expression goes from alert to docile. The nine tails crowd together at the root and loosen as they rise.

A bracelet is fussier about the wrist than a pendant is. On a slim wrist it sits loose and a section can be taken out; on a thicker wrist leave some room and do not fasten at the tightest notch. The clasp is a wearing part — open and close it often enough and it loosens, so replace it when it stops holding, rather than waiting until it drops. The solder joints are another wear point, and hot water plus shampoo in the shower is where they go first.

Dressing it takes no thought. The cloud lines are fine, so plain knitwear or a cotton and linen shirt works; a busy print will fight it. Silver dulls with wear — polish it with a silver cloth and leave the dark in the hollows of the pattern, which makes the line clearer rather than dimmer. The fox is a young subject; before giving it, consider whether it is the recipient's sort of thing. Measure the wrist first — better than guessing by eye.