The plum blossom. A symbol that needs a date

A golden plum blossom appears on an object with a precise collection number: Changdeok12948 at the National Palace Museum of Korea. It is a Cadillac limousine used by Sunjong. The museum cautiously identifies it as probably a 1918 model and reads the ornament on its body as a symbol of the imperial family.

Two chronologies need to remain separate. The dates 1907–1910 describe Sunjong’s reign, not a documented period of using this car. Reading them as the vehicle’s dates would invent a story that the catalogue does not tell. An approximate model date should likewise not become a certain manufacturing year.

The object combines new technology with established forms of representation. Its record describes a lacquered wooden body, floral motifs and patterned silk upholstery. The gallery also presents Empress Sunjeong’s Daimler, dated around 1914. Repeated motifs can therefore be studied on documented objects rather than identified from resemblance alone.

RoyalBea’s medallion is an original interpretation informed by that heritage. It neither replaces an object record nor establishes one coat of arms for all Korean history. The more useful trail leads from the blossom to the family using it, and then to a particular object’s date, material and function.