A RARE HEIR APPARENT EMBROIDERED APRICOT-GROUND SILK GAUZE CHILD'S DRAGON ROBE, JI FU

PROPERTY FROM AN AMERICAN PRIVATE COLLECTION

Details

A RARE HEIR APPARENT EMBROIDERED APRICOT-GROUND SILK GAUZE CHILD'S DRAGON ROBE, JI FU
LATE 19TH CENTURY

Finely worked on the front and back in satin stitch and couched gold thread with nine contorted five-clawed dragons confronting flaming pearls amidst cloud scrolls interspersed with bats confronting wan emblems and double-peach sprays, all above the terrestrial diagram and lishui stripe at the hem, and picked out in shades of blue, green, yellow, red and gray, reserved on an orange-yellow ground with black-ground embroidered collar and cuffs (some fading and staining)
35¾in. (90.8cm.) long

Provenance

Stephen Junkunc, III

Lot Essay

This robe may have been made for the Guangxu emperor just prior to his elevation to emperor by the Empress Dowager, Cixi, in 1875

No other examples of 'apricot yellow' child's robes appear to be published. Compare the kesi twelve-symbol child's robe, sold in these rooms, December 1, 1994, lot 307