Jeweled floral pots of auspicious blossoms recreated

Peonies symbolizing wealth and honor, pine trees expressing wishes for longevity, lotus blossoms representing prosperity, orchids and plum blossoms evoking nobility and the ideal spirit of the scholar — all auspicious meanings are brought together in a single ornamental floral pot.

When King Gojong sought to strengthen ties with France in 1888, among the treasures he dispatched to French President Marie Francois Sadi Carnot was a pair of "banhwa," elaborate ornaments fashioned as flowering plant ...