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Lot Essay
Festival badges of this type were worn on the front chest and back of court robes and were worn by members of the Inner Court on the day of the festival itself or during formal celebratory banquests.
The wan emblem, the shou character and the lingzhi fungus are motifs which form the rebus, 'May you live for ten thousand years'. The use of this phrase is strictly reserved for the emperor, and these imageries were often found among his birthday gifts. The deer is also emblematic for long life and the colour white signifies a great age. The background of the badge is decorated with four different types of flowers, each representing the four seasons: the prunus, lotus, peony and chrysanthemum, executed in couched gold thread. The colour yellow was reserved for the imperial family and indicated the association with the emperor himself. The embroidery has been worked on a red silk gauze mesh but it has now altered to reddish-brown.
For similar examples of a pair of near identical badges in the Chris Hall Collection, cf., J. Rutherford and J. Menzies, Celestial Silks: Chinese Religious & Court Textiles, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2004, no. 46; and an example embroidered with a rabbit, rather a deer bearing a large shou character, sold at Christie's New York, 16 September 1996, lot 241.
The wan emblem, the shou character and the lingzhi fungus are motifs which form the rebus, 'May you live for ten thousand years'. The use of this phrase is strictly reserved for the emperor, and these imageries were often found among his birthday gifts. The deer is also emblematic for long life and the colour white signifies a great age. The background of the badge is decorated with four different types of flowers, each representing the four seasons: the prunus, lotus, peony and chrysanthemum, executed in couched gold thread. The colour yellow was reserved for the imperial family and indicated the association with the emperor himself. The embroidery has been worked on a red silk gauze mesh but it has now altered to reddish-brown.
For similar examples of a pair of near identical badges in the Chris Hall Collection, cf., J. Rutherford and J. Menzies, Celestial Silks: Chinese Religious & Court Textiles, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2004, no. 46; and an example embroidered with a rabbit, rather a deer bearing a large shou character, sold at Christie's New York, 16 September 1996, lot 241.