Lady holding a hand warmer

This young court attendant carries a portable hand warmer, which would have been stoked with burning charcoals. An example of such a warmer can be seen in the installation of porcelains to your left. The large palaces in the Tang capital were designed more for show than for warmth and they must have been miserable to live in during brutally cold, dry, windy, and dusty winters in Chang’an (now known as Xi’an). Such portable warmers could offer a welcome relief to court ladies who lived in sparsely furnished palaces.