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A VERY RARE CIVIL OFFICIAL'S RANK BADGE OF A PEACOCK, BUZI

KANGXI PERIOD (1662 - 1722)

Details
A VERY RARE CIVIL OFFICIAL'S RANK BADGE OF A PEACOCK, BUZI
KANGXI PERIOD (1662 - 1722)
Made for a civil official of the third rank, finely embroidered with a central peacock with long wings and tail in a medallion amidst ruyi clouds and reserved on a dense ground of couched gold threads, framed by a thin border of stylised scrolls in further couched gold threads
13½ in. (34 cm.) square
Provenance
Christie's New York, 22 September 1995, lot 535
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium

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Lot Essay

A badge similar to the present lot is in the British Museum, illustrated by Jessica Rawson in The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, New York, 1992, p. 36, no. 14; and a pair was included in the exhibition The Badge of Rank, London, April 19-May 13, 1990, illustrated by Linda Wrigglesworth, Catalogue, pp. 26 and 27

Other third rank badges of this type with the peacock standing freely, rather than its body forming a medallion, are in the Letcher Collection, illustrated by Schuyler Cammann, 'Chinese Mandarin Squares', University Museum Bulletin, Vol. 17, No. 3, University of Pennsylvania, 1953, fig. 8, no. 9; one from a private collection is illustrated on the front cover, Arts of Asia, May-June, 1991; another is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrated by Young Yang Chung, The Art of Oriental Embroidery, New York, 1983, fig. 6-13; and another illustrated by Valery M. Garrett, Chinese Clothing, Hong Kong, 1994, pl. 31

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