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Lot Essay
Madame Christian Rowe Thornett was the daughter of successful tobacco manufacturer and philanthropist Sir Hugh Dixson and Lady Emma Elizabeth Dixson nee Shaw (1844-1922). Madame Thornett was born in 1879 and travelled extensively from her early 20s, spending time in China, which is possibly where she met her husband. Like her father, Madame Thornett was known for her philanthropy and support of charities. On her death in 1972, her extensive collection was auctioned over 3 days with the proceeds donated to charity. Parts of her collection are now in the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
An unusual feature of this robe is the additional embellishment of couched gold and silver threads used to delineate the dragon's body and scales. Twelve-symbol blue robes are extremely rare and much rarer than their yellow counterparts. A blue-ground kesi twelve-symbol 'dragon' robe dating to the Jiaqing period from the Linda Wrigglesworth Collection was sold at Christie's New York, 19 March 2008, lot 10, which is woven with multi-coloured threads. Another kesi robe very similar to the Wrigglesworth example, also dating to the early 19th century, is illustrated by R.D. Jacobsen, Imperial Silks, Ch'ing Dynasty Textiles in The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, vol. I, Minneapolis, 2000, pp. 82-3., no. 12. The present robe would have been extremely expensive to produce, as the decoration is entirely made with either gold or silver-wrapped threads. Compare to a blue-ground 'dragon' robe dating to the Qianlong period embroidered entirely with gold and silver-wrapped threads, but without the twelve symbols, illustrated in Heaven's Embroidered Cloth - One Thousand Years of Chinese Textiles, Hong Kong, 1995, no. 63, p. 218. The use of the blue colour was associated with the Temple of Heaven, south of the palace, where the Emperor offered sacrifice at the winter solstice and also prayed for rain during the summer months.
An unusual feature of this robe is the additional embellishment of couched gold and silver threads used to delineate the dragon's body and scales. Twelve-symbol blue robes are extremely rare and much rarer than their yellow counterparts. A blue-ground kesi twelve-symbol 'dragon' robe dating to the Jiaqing period from the Linda Wrigglesworth Collection was sold at Christie's New York, 19 March 2008, lot 10, which is woven with multi-coloured threads. Another kesi robe very similar to the Wrigglesworth example, also dating to the early 19th century, is illustrated by R.D. Jacobsen, Imperial Silks, Ch'ing Dynasty Textiles in The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, vol. I, Minneapolis, 2000, pp. 82-3., no. 12. The present robe would have been extremely expensive to produce, as the decoration is entirely made with either gold or silver-wrapped threads. Compare to a blue-ground 'dragon' robe dating to the Qianlong period embroidered entirely with gold and silver-wrapped threads, but without the twelve symbols, illustrated in Heaven's Embroidered Cloth - One Thousand Years of Chinese Textiles, Hong Kong, 1995, no. 63, p. 218. The use of the blue colour was associated with the Temple of Heaven, south of the palace, where the Emperor offered sacrifice at the winter solstice and also prayed for rain during the summer months.