Color Mother of Pearl Butterfly Seonbi Scholar 8-Drawer Yakjang Apothecary Chest (Medium)

Overview

An eight-drawer yakjang — the compartmented chest a Korean herbalist kept his materia medica in — reworked at desk scale in lacquer and shell. Butterflies in colored nacre are set across the drawer fronts, and the piece is named for the seonbi, the Confucian scholar whose study it would have furnished. Each drawer pulls independently, making it as useful for stationery, tea, or jewelry as it once was for roots and bark.

Heritage & Craft

Not all mother-of-pearl is white. Shell taken from different species, and from different depths of the same shell, carries pink, green, and blue within it; a maker who wants color selects for it rather than dyeing, which is why the butterflies here vary from drawer to drawer. The pieces are cut, set into lacquer, covered, and polished flat like any other najeon work.

The butterfly is Korean shorthand for joy and for a marriage going well. On scholar's furniture it lightens a form that is otherwise strictly functional — a working cabinet given a note of pleasure.

Specifications

• Material: Lacquered wood with colored natural mother-of-pearl inlay
• Motif: Butterflies (joy, good fortune)
• Form: Eight-drawer yakjang, the traditional apothecary chest
• Size: Medium
• Origin: Handmade in South Korea
• Brand: K-Crafts | Code: KS-P0000VPE

Gifting

A desk or study piece — well suited to a graduation, a new office, a tea drinker, or anyone who collects small things and has nowhere to put them. The apothecary form gives it a story that a plain drawer unit does not have.