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A woman's embroidered wool informal robe, Changyi Likely Imperial, late 19th century image 1
A woman's embroidered wool informal robe, Changyi Likely Imperial, late 19th century image 2
A woman's embroidered wool informal robe, Changyi Likely Imperial, late 19th century image 3
A woman's embroidered wool informal robe, Changyi Likely Imperial, late 19th century image 4
A woman's embroidered wool informal robe, Changyi Likely Imperial, late 19th century image 5
A woman's embroidered wool informal robe, Changyi Likely Imperial, late 19th century image 6
A woman's embroidered wool informal robe, Changyi Likely Imperial, late 19th century image 7
A woman's embroidered wool informal robe, Changyi Likely Imperial, late 19th century image 8
A woman's embroidered wool informal robe, Changyi Likely Imperial, late 19th century image 9
A woman's embroidered wool informal robe, Changyi Likely Imperial, late 19th century image 10
A woman's embroidered wool informal robe, Changyi Likely Imperial, late 19th century image 11
A woman's embroidered wool informal robe, Changyi Likely Imperial, late 19th century image 12
A woman's embroidered wool informal robe, Changyi Likely Imperial, late 19th century image 13
A woman's embroidered wool informal robe, Changyi Likely Imperial, late 19th century image 14
Lot 175

A woman's embroidered wool informal robe, Changyi
Likely Imperial, late 19th century

Fine Chinese Paintings and Works of Art
21 September 2020, 12:00 EDT
New York

US$12,000 - US$18,000

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A woman's embroidered wool informal robe, Changyi

Likely Imperial, late 19th century
The red wool broadcloth finely embroidered with paper white narcissus--their bulbs and roots exposed--on the front and back in silk floss and wrapped metallic threads, with a dark silk border, the silk sleeve bands embroidered with butterflies.
54in (137cm) long

Footnotes

十九世紀晚期 紅地繡水仙蝴蝶紋羊皮敞衣

Provenance
Charles A. Whitaker Auction Co, 21 October 2017, lot 412

来源
Charles A. Whitaker拍賣行，2017年10月21日，拍品編號412

This strikingly designed robe is a vivid example of Late Qing court fashions, with the Imperial court under the sway of the Dowager Empress Cixi. The exuberance of the blossoming paper white narcissus captures the aesthetic of informal woman's dress within the inner circles of the Imperial family during this otherwise tumultuous period.

The red wool broadcloth is a sharp departure from the fine silks that were the principal material of Chinese imperial robes for millenia. In a continuation of the Qianlong court's interest in embracing the foreign, the Manchu elite of late Qing society adopted British-made wool as a fashion statement of exotic luxury. For more on the use of British wool in China at the end of the 19th century see Rachel Silberstein, "Fashioning the Foreign: Using British Woolens in Nineteenth-Century China", in: Pyun K., Wong A. (eds) Fashion, Identity, and Power in Modern Asia. East Asian Popular Culture, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. A similar brushed wool woman's robe, likely dating from the same period, is in the collection of the Denver Art Museum, 1977.201

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