A BLUE-GROUND EMBROIDERED SILK SHORT COAT

MID-19TH CENTURY

Details

A BLUE-GROUND EMBROIDERED SILK SHORT COAT
Mid-19th Century
Finely and elaborately worked in satin stitch and peking knot on the front and back panels with scenes of the "one hundred boys" engaged in various pursuits including children at play, playing musical instruments, playing ge, painting and participating in festival processions, picked out in vibrant multi-colored threads against a dark blue ground, with cream-ground borders and cuffs also finely embroidered with figures in garden settings, the reverse of the sleeve cuffs decorated with fine peking knot with further scenes of the "one hundred boys", with two pendent tabs at the front closure
42in. (108.5cm.) long

Lot Essay

Other coats with this charming subject matter are illustrated by John E. Vollmer, Decoding Dragons: Status Garments in Ch'ing Dynasty China, University of Oregon Museum of Art, 1983, pp. 166 and 167, pls. 116 and 117. In the catalogue entry for pl. 116, p. 216, the author notes that "One Hundred Children, a wish for progeny, was a common marriage decoration and frequently embellished Chinese women's clothes, in contrast to Manchu practice which avoided figural imagery on garments"