MING DYNASTY, LATE 16TH-EARLY 17TH CENTURY

Details

A RARE IMPERIAL LANTERN FESTIVAL BADGE
MING DYNASTY, LATE 16TH-EARLY 17TH CENTURY
Probably from an Imperial robe, embroidered in couched gold threads and satin stich with a five-clawed dragon shown in profile above a flaming pearl and the celestial diagram, a circular lantern above his head denoting the Imperial Lantern Festival, picked out in red, blue, green and yellow against a gold ground
15½ in. (39.3 cm.) diam.

Lot Essay

The lantern on this badge indicates that it would have been worn on a coat during the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Compare a badge of similar date, made for the Mid-Autumn Festival, included in the exhibition, Heavens' Embroidered Cloths, One Thousand Years of Chinese Textiles, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 23 June 1995 - 17 September 1995, no. 93.

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