Silver Gilt Curtain Hooks

The traditional wedding bed of the Peranakan Chinese in Malaya and Singapore was a large and ungainly double-bed, a four-poster carved out of namwood or sometimes black wood and boxwood. For the wedding ceremonies, the bed was covered all over, from top to bottom, with damask silk or satin drapes profusely embroidered with phoenixes, peonies, bats, quails, mandarin ducks, dragons and other symbols denoting conjugal fidelity, wedded bliss and prosperity.

The front drapes of the wedding bed are usually drawn aside when the bed is not being used, and they are secured to the two side posts by means of a pair of silver gilt curtain hooks specially made for this purpose.

To the Peranakan tradition, every item of the richly ornamented bridal bed had to be the finest craftsmanship that the bride's or groom's family could afford. Fundamentally, the design of a typical curtain hook intended for the Peranakan bridal bed is modelled after the form of a hook-like device. But instead of being content with a plain and a functional hook, Straits silversmiths fabricated a variety of ornamental panels which were all variations of the basic, ovoidal panels. They then soldered these panels on to the vertical stem of the hook.

Pictures below show a pair of curtain hooks from my collection.

The curtain hooks.
-Front-

The curtain hooks.
-Back-

The decorative motifs which consist of peonies in foliate patterns and two bats covering the top and bottom part of the panel executed in chased and relief work.

The decorative flower pattern (in layers) of the curtain hooks in between the panel and the ring.