.jpg?w=1){kind=icon}
IMPORTANT CHINESE RANK BADGES AND TEXTILES FROM THE DAVID HUGUS COLLECTION (LOTS 1152-1170) After a long and decorated military career, Dr. David Hugus began collecting rank badges in 1991. His interest began after reading articles on the subject by Professor Schuyler Cammann of the University of Pennsylvania, which inspired his thirty-year pursuit of learning, teaching and collecting Chinese rank badges. Together with the support of his wife of over fifty years, Nancy, the study and collecting of rank badges became a hobby as well as a mission-- to decode and publish on the sparsely written field of rank badges. In 2000, Hugus co-authored with collector Beverley Jackson, Ladder to the Clouds: Intrigue and Tradition in Chinese Rank, considered one of the foremost English-language texts on the history of Chinese rank badges and one of five non-fiction finalists for the Kiriyama Book Award in 2000. Seeing the need for an even more comprehensive survey of rank badges, he continued to expand his knowledge and to build an encyclopedic collection of badges with the intention of again publishing a text that would stand as the most comprehensive on the subject. In 2021, David published Chinese Rank Badges: Symbols of Power, Wealth, and Intellect in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Hong Kong, 2021, which now stands as the most comprehensive text on the subject of rank badges in the English language and is being published in Chinese by Social Sciences Academic Press, Beijing. Christie’s is honored to offer the first of four sales of Chinese rank badges and textiles from the David Hugus collection.PROPERTY FROM THE DAVID HUGUS COLLECTION
A RARE KESI CIVIL OFFICIAL'S RANK BADGE OF AN EGRET, BUZI
MING DYNASTY, 16TH-17TH CENTURY
Details
A RARE KESI CIVIL OFFICIAL'S RANK BADGE OF AN EGRET, BUZI
MING DYNASTY, 16TH-17TH CENTURY
Made for the wife of a sixth rank civil official, the egret is boldly worked with outstretched wings perched on a rock formation, set against a gold ground interspersed with multi-colored clouds above waves.
12 7⁄8 x 11 1⁄2 in. (32.7 x 29.2 cm.)
MING DYNASTY, 16TH-17TH CENTURY
Made for the wife of a sixth rank civil official, the egret is boldly worked with outstretched wings perched on a rock formation, set against a gold ground interspersed with multi-colored clouds above waves.
12 7⁄8 x 11 1⁄2 in. (32.7 x 29.2 cm.)
Provenance
Lee Kavaljian Collection, San Francisco.
Literature
D. Hugus, Chinese Rank Badges: Symbols of Power, Wealth, and Intellect in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Hong Kong, 2021, p. 64, fig. 5.17.
Brought to you by
Rufus Chen (陳嘉安)
Head of Sale, AVP, Specialist