An embroidered black satin military official rank badge of a leopard, Buzi, Qing dynasty, mid 19th Century.
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The leopard is for an official of the 3rd military rank. The badge finely worked in Peking knot with the tiger facing the sun as it alights atop a rock emerging from froth-capped waves, surrounded by lingzhi-shaped clouds and bats, whitin a key-fret border with gold thread. All embroidered in muted shades of blue, coral, pink, yellow, blue, mauve and white. Lined in a blue silk. Measure 29x28.5 cm.
Wear, loose threads.
Provenance
Purchased at Christies, Chinese Ceramics, Works of Art & Textiles, 5497. Lot no 560.
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.
Literature
Illustrated Precedents for the Ritual Paraphernalia of the Imperial Court, published in 1759, tells us much about how Court attire was regulated by imperial decrees. The Chinese tradition of wearing rank badges (buzi), also known as Mandarin squares, to demonstrate civil, military or imperial rank began in 1391 during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and continued throughout the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
These insignia were sewn onto or woven into the wearer’s garments to indicate their rank. Civil officials wore insignia with different bird species corresponding to their rank, while animals denoted military officers.
The fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911 brought an end to rank insignia.
More information
The real or mythical animals that decorate military rank insignia symbolise the wearer’s courage. As with civil officials, the order of ranking creatures varied over time. By the late Qing Dynasty the order was: the mythical qilin, lion, leopard, tiger, bear, panther, rhinoceros (seventh, after 1759, and eighth) and sea horse (not the undersea creature, but an actual horse galloping through the waves). Military officials sat on the emperor’s right, so their animals faced left towards him as a sign of respect.
Military squares are more desirable because they are harder to find than civil badges.
Focusing on the details is essential to identifying animals. At first glance a tiger may look like a panther, until you spot wavy lines or open crescent shapes on its body and three horizontal lines on its forehead to symbolise its status as king of beasts. Panthers, on the other hand, do not have distinguishing marks.