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Lot Essay
The present textile is woven with four roundels enclosing front-facing dragons, each paired with an Imperial symbol, and would have formed part of a surcoat (gunfu) worn by the emperor.
During the Qing dynasty, surcoats bearing dragon roundels denoted rank. The emperor’s surcoat, known as the gunfu, featured a center-front opening and was decorated with four front-facing, five-clawed dragons. In the Qianlong period, shoulder roundels incorporated the sun and moon symbols, while by the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries additional symbols—the constellation at the front and the mountain at the back—were introduced. Court regulations prescribed that the gunfu be worn by the emperor on the first day of the annual sacrifices at the Altar of Heaven, over his most formal attire. A related Jiaqing-period gunfu fragment, also incorporating four Imperial symbols, is in the Mactaggart Art Collection, and illustrated in J. Vollmer and J. Simcox, Emblems of Empire, Alberta, 2009, pp. 64–65.
During the Qing dynasty, surcoats bearing dragon roundels denoted rank. The emperor’s surcoat, known as the gunfu, featured a center-front opening and was decorated with four front-facing, five-clawed dragons. In the Qianlong period, shoulder roundels incorporated the sun and moon symbols, while by the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries additional symbols—the constellation at the front and the mountain at the back—were introduced. Court regulations prescribed that the gunfu be worn by the emperor on the first day of the annual sacrifices at the Altar of Heaven, over his most formal attire. A related Jiaqing-period gunfu fragment, also incorporating four Imperial symbols, is in the Mactaggart Art Collection, and illustrated in J. Vollmer and J. Simcox, Emblems of Empire, Alberta, 2009, pp. 64–65.