Page 441 - Bonhams Chinese Art London May 2013
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Silk textiles adorned the palaces and great houses of China, and the style and colours
chosen brought the appropriate level of solemnity for formal and ritual occasions and
revealed the rank of the users. The present piece, of superb quality and with nine
dragons, can be associated with the Emperor or close members of the Imperial family.
Similar throne cushions can be found in both private and museum collections; see
for example, the embroidered throne cover in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts,
no.95.95.8 and another in the same collection but made in the kesi technique and
dated to the Kangxi period, no.42.8.231. Another example but with only five dragons
is illustrated by J.E.Vollmer, Silks for Thrones and Altars: Chinese Costumes and
Textiles, Paris, 2003, no.29. A yellow-ground nine-dragon cover was sold at Christie’s
New York, 22-23 March 2012, lot 1622.
Invoice
Fine Chinese Art | 437
