Hundred Antiques Pattern: Bogu in Chinese Decorative Art

作者 Anthony
發佈日期 11 月 14, 2026

Identify the Hundred Antiques pattern in Chinese art and see how bronze vessels, flower vases and scholar’s objects appear on porcelain, silk and inlay.

Quick Answer: What Is the Hundred Antiques Pattern?

The Hundred Antiques pattern (博古纹, bógǔwén) depicts prized objects such as ancient bronze vessels, vases of flowers and accessories from a scholar’s studio. The design became popular in the seventeenth century and appears on Qing ceramics, textiles and furnishings.^[1][2]

Objects. Look for recognizable vessels, brushes, scrolls and other collectibles.^[1][2][4]
Arrangement. Objects can sit in clusters or repeat across a surface.^[3][4][5]
Meaning. The display can suggest cultivated taste, and some groups also express auspicious wishes.^[1][4]

“Hundred” signals a large or varied collection, so the composition can contain far fewer objects.^[6]

Hundred Antiques pattern on an inlaid panel porcelain and silk

On a Qianlong panel, green jade takes the shape of a bronze vessel. On a satin robe, threads form a row of porcelain vases. The jade suggests the color of aged metal. The silk shows a selection of prized objects as decoration on a garment.

What Counts as an Antique in the Design?

The pattern often draws on familiar forms from ancient objects, including ritual vessels, as well as later items from collections and studios. Look for handles and feet on a bronze ding tripod or for a brush pot with several brushes rising out of it. Their shapes can be recognizable even at a small scale.^[1][2][4]

A Qianlong display panel at the Metropolitan Museum of Art uses spinach-green jade to suggest an old bronze with a green patina. On either side, cloisonné enamel imitates a different surface, an archaic bronze pattern on one vessel and a more recent porcelain pattern on the other. The materials themselves contribute to the illusion that the panel displays a collection of objects.^[2]

How Bogu Appears on Qing Porcelain

A Kangxi covered jar from Jingdezhen renders the pattern in underglaze cobalt blue. Cobalt blue gives the depicted objects clear contours against the white porcelain. In a group of export vases catalogued as Yongzheng-period wares, colored enamels form a continuous scene with antiques, flowers and animals.^[3][6]

Research on export porcelain shows that the compositions changed during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. European makers sometimes copied them closely and sometimes worked the objects into local decorative styles. A group may keep its recognizable bronze vessel shapes even when its surroundings change.^[4][4]

Antique Vases and Vessels on Silk

A light green Qianlong robe embroidered in Suzhou carries eight flower-filled vase designs. A vase with peonies sits on the chest. Garlic-mouth and tube-handled vases appear at the shoulders, while other vessels and flowers occupy the lower front and back. Silk satin gives these separate clusters a continuous ground.^[5]

An uncut nineteenth-century tapestry panel uses ancient-style vessels and inscriptions on sections probably intended for small accessories. The museum suggests a scent container for the gourd-shaped parts and fan cases for the long rectangles. One pictured bronze vessel and its ancient-style writing could fit on a single accessory.^[7]

A display can also include Eight Treasures emblems among the vessels and studio objects.^[4] In a Hidden Eight Immortals design, each attribute stands for a legendary figure.^[8]

FAQs About the Hundred Antiques Pattern

Does the design have to show a hundred antiques?

The name describes abundance. A group of several recognizable vessels and studio objects can be enough to make the design identifiable.^[1][2][6]

How does it differ from the Eight Treasures?

The Hundred Antiques depicts a display of prized objects. The Eight Treasures draws on a repertoire of smaller auspicious emblems, such as cash and lozenges. Some of those emblems can also appear in a Hundred Antiques composition.^[1][4]