The blue silk gauze worked in couched gold thread and fine counted stitch with nine five-clawed dragons pursuing flaming pearls amidst blue clouds interspersed with bats and and cranes above a lishui stripe, with similar decoration repeated on the border, collar and horsehoof cuffs, the black gauze sleeve extensions with couched blue stripes Length back 134 cm. Length arm to arm 210 cm.
Wear.
Purchased at Christies 24 November 1998. Lot no 36.
Property of a private Finnish Collection.
The collection was formed between 1980-2020, the collector has had an interest in China and Chinese Works of Art since childhood, growing up in Beijing. He returned to China in grownup years for work, he came to live in China altogether more than 40 years. His love of China, and Chinese works of art is mirrored in the collection and being an academic collector, he never got tired of learning more about the subject by studying literature, attending lectures, visiting museums, auction houses and befriending curators from Peking, Hong Kong, London, Paris, and Stockholm. The collection consists of both Chinese ceramics and textiles, This being part 2, a part of the textile collection.
C Hall, Power Dressing, Textiles for Rulers and Priests from the Chris Hall Collection, Asian Civilizations Museum, 2006. The author writes that blue was the colour used on dragon robes worn by the third and fourth degree princes, nobles down to the eleventh degree, and officials.
The bright gold couching and the counted stich embroidery against the textured gauze ground provide a striking contrast.