White Copper Cloud Pattern Constellation Long Tag, Silver

The lunar mansions began as a way of tracking the sun, moon and five planets: the sky near the ecliptic was divided into twenty-eight blocks, the twenty-eight mansions. These fall into four groups of seven, each with a divine animal, the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird and Black Tortoise. The star dots on the plaque are arranged the way the mansions are joined, a few stars to a group linked by fine zigzag lines, the way old star charts drew them. The mansion names are odd, Jiao, Kang, Di, Fang, Xin, Wei and Ji, and sound like a string of meaningless syllables; they were names the ancients gave to star clusters.

The long plaque is vertical, taller than it is wide, the corners cut square and a fine ridge at the edge. The upper half is cloud pattern and the lower half the mansions, divided by a horizontal line. The weight sits low, so it does not tip when hung and does not turn over on the chest. The four sides are ground a little thinner than the middle, so that the hand finds a soft transition.

Cloud pattern has a long history on Chinese metalwork. It appears on Warring States inlaid bronzes, and by the Ming and Qing it had become the most common filler on furniture and porcelain. The cloud head curls in and the tail draws out, one stroke joining the next, filling the blank without looking cluttered. The upper half of this plaque uses that coiled cloud, the heads pressed onto the dividing line so that they are held. The cutting separates raised and recessed: raised heads bright, recessed tails dark, so that a cloud has thickness.

Two versions, gold and silver. The gold is warm, its surface treated to look like old brass; the silver is the natural white copper, cool and white, and the relief reads more clearly in a cool tone. Silver in the name refers to colour, not material, so check the option before ordering; the mould is the same for both. The gold sits deeper in warm light, the silver looks sharper in cool light, and which to take depends on what you usually wear.

A long plaque has a large area and a large contact patch with the skin; in summer the back hazes with moisture, so wipe it when you get home. The face is flat and bends under load, so do not keep it in a back pocket. Clean the cloud recesses with a cotton bud; the lines between star dots are fine, so do not pick at them with a needle, because break one and the whole chart is broken. There is only one hole, and the plaque hangs true by its own weight, so no extra locating is needed.