White Copper Five Jambhalas Open Ring

The Five Direction Wealth Gods are the five directions — east, west, south, north and centre. The centre is Zhao Gongming, and each of the other four has its own charge; together they carry the sense that going out the door, there is income from all five quarters. Merchants used the scheme heavily in the old days, invoking the five directions when a shop opened or when the wealth god was received at the new year. The names differ from place to place and the roster is not identical everywhere; the carvers work from drawings and do not worry much about the scholarship. When offerings were made, all five quarters had to be present — one missing was like a table with a leg short — which is why the scheme belonged to shopfronts more than to houses.

Five gods are crowded onto one ring face, each head turned to its own quarter, one seated square in the middle with two on either side. The figures are small, so the brows and eyes can only be suggested; you tell them apart by crown and by the folds of their robes. The face runs across the band and takes up most of the circle, its corners rounded off so nothing pricks. The five stand close, fold pressing on fold: from a distance it is a dense knot of line, and only up close do the faces count out. They are much of a height, with none pushed forward, and the central figure is only a little broader at the shoulder.

Of the three options, the yellow one carries a gold-leaning tone and the other two differ in size. The difference in size is in the face, and the band size follows it. A thick finger wants the large one, since the face can carry it; a slim finger wants the small, since a broad face on a thin finger looks empty. Measure the finger before buying. The opening adjusts, but adjust it too far and a face packed with five figures will pull out of shape. The large one holds up on the middle or index finger; the small one mostly goes to women.

A figure piece has many seams, and dust and sweat work into them; in time the spaces between the faces go black first. Dry-brush with a soft toothbrush, following the folds of the robes, not across them — a crosswise brush rounds the fine lines of the crowns. On the gold one the colour goes first from the most exposed places, the faces and the crowns, which is the ordinary path of wear and not a fault in the piece. Bag it when it comes off, and keep it away from keys. Black in the seams of white copper is oxidation, not dirt; it will not wipe out, and it should not be dug at.

The band is open, with a gap left between the ends. A figure piece has many raised points, so when you bend it, put the pressure on the plain inside of the band and keep off the faces. White copper is hard enough that fine robe folds stand up; knock it against something hard and a section will collapse, and a collapsed section cannot be repaired, only ground flat, and the ground patch is bare. The cut ends of the opening are polished, so they do not scratch and do not catch a cuff. The allowance at the opening is not large, so do not treat it as a fully adjustable band.