A TURQUOISE-GROUND EMBROIDERED SILK GAUZE IMPERIAL CONSORT'S DRAGON ROBE, JI FU

JIAQING

Details

A TURQUOISE-GROUND EMBROIDERED SILK GAUZE IMPERIAL CONSORT'S DRAGON ROBE, JI FU
Jiaqing
Worked in counted stitch and couched gold threads on the front and back with nine five-clawed dragons confronting flaming pearls amidst a dense ground of multicolored clouds interspersed with the Eight Buddhist Emblems, bats, and two of the twelve imperial symbols, the ax and the fu character both on the front, the constellation, sun and moon symbols now removed, the collar, wide sleeves and cuffs decorated with dark blue-ground borders worked with further dragons and clouds within gold bands of overlapping petals, all above the terrestrial diagram and lishui stripe at the hem
54in. (138.4cm.) long

Provenance

Benton Collection

Exhibited

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Lot Essay

Compare the example illustrated by Gary Dickinson and Linda Wrigglesworth, Imperial Wardrobe, London, 1990, p. 95, pl. 76, which is very similar except that the narrow sleeves are unadorned and do not end in cuffs. The authors note that the turquoise ground suggests that the robe was intended for use by an imperial consort.