AN IMPERIAL FORMAL KESI COURT ROBE

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AN IMPERIAL FORMAL KESI COURT ROBE
QIANLONG

The court robe woven with nine gold five-clawed upright dragons amidst an elaborate background of 'flaming pearls', ruyi-shaped clouds, precious objects and bats in flight, all reserved on a walnut-brown ground, the hem decorated with turbulent waves, interspersed with columnar ornamental rocky boulders with fruiting peach trees, flowering tree peony and narcissus, lined in yellow silk brocade (lower black silk sleeves shortened, wear and broken threads at shoulders); sold together with an embroidered quatrefoil blue silk dragon panel, 19th century, finely embroidered on gauze with four full-faced dragons, one on each lobe, picked out in gold thread, against a ruyi-cloud ground, inserted at the centre with a dragon roundel (minor gold threads detached)
58 1/8 in (147.5 cm.) long (2)

Sale room notice

Please note that the estimate for this lot should read: HK$50,000-70,000.

Lot Essay

The dragon robe, with reddish-brown ground, indicates that it was most probably worn by the consort of an imperial prince. For a similar robe also embroidered with dragons on a brown ground, see the one illustrated by G. Dickinson and L. Wrigglesworth, Imperial Wardrobe, 1990, pl. 174.

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