LATE 19TH CENTURY

In late imperial China red clothing was used for celebrating major events within the family--birth of children, weddings, significant birthdays and anniversaries. The color symbolized the element fire and expressed wishes for happiness. This formal domestic Manchu woman's robe would have been made for a matriarch to wear on her birthday when she received good wishes from her children and grandchildren. As a formal garment this robe would have had a front-opening dark blue surcoat with matching embroidery. The ensemble of robe and surcoat, the organization of decoration into roundels above a lishui border, the bindings at the neck and cuffs of black silk lampas patterned with gold-wrapped threads, all found parallels in semi-formal court attire of high-ranking women. Like those garments made for court use, roundel decoration signaled formality. This decorative schema can be traced to the Tang dynasty (618-907) and may have been influenced by West Asian custom. While dragon imagery signaled official attire, floral and faunal imagery organized into roundels were appropriate for domestic use.
The decorative schema features butterflies and double gourds, imagery particularly appropriate for birthdays. The butterfly, a symbol of beauty, is also a common homophone for the word which means 'seventy years of age'. When combined with the gourd, one of the Daoist treasures, which was thought to embody both heaven and earth and convey spiritual protection, it would have expressed a family's wishes for the longevity of its matriarch.