AN UNUSUAL YELLOW-GROUND EMBROIDERED WOOL JACKET

ANOTHER PROPERTY

Details

AN UNUSUAL YELLOW-GROUND EMBROIDERED WOOL JACKET
SECOND QUARTER OF THE 19TH CENTURY

Possibly an image robe, worked on the front and back in Peking knot and couched threads of peacock feathers and gold with eight writhing five-clawed dragons amidst stylized clouds and bats, peony sprays and the eight Buddhist emblems, all above a finely worked terrestrial diagram and lishui stripe at the hem, reserved on a golden orange-yellow ground, the sides unsewn and with yellow silk ties for closure, the lining with a painted inscription
42½in. (106.9cm.) long

Lot Essay

This robe is made of British trade wool which first appears in China in quantity in the 1820's. The combination of materials, wool and peacock feathers, is unusual. For a rare example of an uncut dragon robe, circa 1870, with the entire background couched with peacock feather, see Dragons and Silk from the Forbidden City, Teresa Coleman Fine Arts, Hong Kong, p. 24