David,

Nope, an already existing object can not be added to some other object. Also an object must be in the containership of a form (AddObject'd to the form) for it to be visible and participate in the UI event loop.

You can "replicate" the object with code like:

thisform.AddObject( "oimage", x.Class )
n = amembers( laPEMs, ox, 0 )

for i = 1 to n
   if ( ! pemstatus( thisform.oImage, laPEMs[i], 1 ) and laPEMs[i] != "NAME" )
      store eval( "ox." + laPEMs[i]) to ("thisform.oImage." + laPEMs[i])
   endif
endfor

>AddObject() creates and adds an object to a form.
>Is there a way to add an existing object instance to a form
>
>eg
>x= createobject('image')
>do form myform
>
>where myform has a command button...
>*** myform.command1.click() ***
>thisform.addxobject('image1', x)
>thisform.image1.visible= .t.