Page 214 - 2019 September 13th Christie's New York Important Chinese Works of Art

This rare ‘dragon’ robe is one of fewer than thirty extant examples
of its type, and is representative of the development of the
‘dragon’ robe in the early Qing dynasty. Ming dynasty robes, and
some of the earliest Qing dynasty ‘dragon’ robes featured a pair
of dragons extending the length of the garment, but by the Kangxi
period (1662-1722), the robe evolved to include nine dragons
separated into two registers—with eight visible dragons and one
hidden dragon. The separation of the dragons into two registers
was likely because the Manchu Qing dynasty was accustomed
to wearing a belt with their clothing, and the new organization
allowed for this without interrupting the robe’s design.

The dragons on these Kangxi robes featured larger front-facing
dragons on the front and back amidst smaller side-facing
dragons, while the dragons on later Qing-dynasty robes were all
approximately the same size. The Kangxi robes were made from
very high-quality brocade fabric and were all made with nearly
identical cartoons, with very minor alterations in design. The
Kangxi robes also featured sleeves and cufs which were made
from the same material as the robe, and had simple binding at
the neck and small gilt buttons. By the mid-eighteenth century,
diferent fabrics would be used for the sleeve extensions and
cufs as illustrated in Huangchao liqi tushi, which was compiled in
1759 and enforced in 1766.
Little information is known about who the wearer of this type of
robe would have been. It has been most commonly suggested
that the robe is a semi-formal court robe for a Machu man, as all
of the extant examples are tailored for men.

Similar robes have been found in a variety of colors including
salmon, pale blue, black, ivory, and dark blue, like the present
robe, and some scholars have suggested that the variety of
colors could indicate that this robe was meant to be worn for a
ceremony at court. A nearly identical dark blue brocade dragon
robe, diferent from the present robe only in its salmon-colored
lining, is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and is published
by John Vollmer in Ruling from the Dragon Throne: Costume
of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), California, 2002, p. 100, fg.
4.18. Another robe in ivory, is in the Chris Hall Collection, and is
illustrated in Power Dressing: Textile for Rulers and Priests from
the Chris Hall Collection, Singapore, 2006, p.136, fg. 19. Other
examples include a chestnut-brown robe illustrated by John E.
Vollmer in the exhibition catalogue Five Colours of the Universe,
Edmonton Art Gallery, 7 November 1980-11 January 1981, pp. 20-
21; and a pale blue example, illustrated by Judith Rutherford and
Jackie Menzies in Celestial Silks, Art Gallery of New South Wales,
2004, p. 65, fg. 31, and now in a private collection in Melbourne.
A yellow example was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 May
2009, lot 1817.

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