KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)

There are few surviving examples of Qing imperial dragon robes dated to the early eighteenth century. Compare a blue dragon robe dated to the first quarter of the eighteenth century in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, illustrated by John E. Vollmer in Ruling From The Dragon Throne, Berkeley/Toronto, 2002, p. 100, fig. 4.18. Another robe in ivory, dated to the early eighteenth century in the Chris Hall Collection is illustrated in Power Dressing: Textile for Rulers and Priests from the Chris Hall Collection, Singapore, 2006, p.136, fig. 19. Other examples include a chestnut brown robe illustrated by John E. Vollmer in the exhibition catalogue Five Colours of the Universe, Edmonton Art Gallery, 7 November 1980 - 11 January 1981, pp. 20-21, and a pale blue example, illustrated by Judith Rutherford and Jackie Menzies in Celestial Silks, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2004, p. 65, fig. 31, now in a private collection in Melbourne.

A yellow brocade dragon robe dating to the Kangxi period was sold in our Hong Kong Rooms, 27 May 2009, lot 1817.