GUANGXU PERIOD (1875-1908)

Details

AN IMPERIAL APRICOT-GROUND EMBROIDERED SILK TWELVE SYMBOL 'DRAGON' ROBE
GUANGXU PERIOD (1875-1908)
The robe is finely worked in couched gold and silver metal threads on the front and back with nine five-clawed dragons on a dense ground of stylized clouds interspersed with auspicious bats and the Eight Buddhist Emblems. The Twelve Symbols of Imperial Authority are arranged in three groups of four beginning with the sun, moon, constellation and mountains around the neck; the axe head, fu symbol, paired dragons and pheasant around the upper body of the robe; and the water weed, pair of sacrificial vessels, fire and grain above the terrestrial diagram and lishui stripe at the hem, all picked out in shades of blue, turquoise, red, ochre, and green, and reserved on an apricot ground. The matching dark blue-ground cuffs and collar are worked with further dragons amidst bats, clouds and waves.
57 7/8 in. (147 cm.) long

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Lot Essay

It is unusual to find a twelve-symbol robe with apricot-ground, the heir apparent color, and it is possible that this robe was made for a high-ranking imperial consort. A man's apricot-ground twelve-symbol imperial robe sold at Christie's New York, 26 March 2003, lot 69; and another sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 28 November 2012, lot 2271.
For a discussion of the significance of each of the twelve imperial symbols, see G. Dickinson and L. Wrigglesworth, Imperial Wardrobe, London, 1990, pp. 76-92.

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