Page 60 - 2020 September Fine Chinese Paintings and Works of Art, Bonham NYC

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AN EMBROIDERED SILK AND SEED PEARL DRAGON
MIRROR CASE
Early 18th Century The Qianlong emperor eventually decided the use of exquisite pearl
Formed as two joined circular panels each bordered with blue silk work was too lavish--even for the Qing court--and in 1776 he issued
woven with gilt paper into a scrolling lotus pattern, the one face with a edict forbidding the use of seed pearl embroidery, reflecting on
a forward facing dragon under a shou medallion and surrounded the considerable labor and cost to produce such luxurious items.
by clouds, all worked with tiny embroidered seed pearls, coral and However, early Qianlong period formal portraits of the Emperor and
couched silk threads, reversed with knotted chain stitches forming ruyi Xiaoxianchun illustrate the use of seed pearls in both the robes and
and scrolling arabesques. accessories worn by the Qianlong Emperor and the Empress.
14 1/2in (36.8 cm) diameter
Several Qing Imperial robes employing embroidered seed pearls
$10,000 - 15,000 are extant. A jifu belonging to Rongxian, the second daughter of
the Kangxi emperor and wife of the Mongol Prince Wuergun, was
18世纪初 緝米珠繡雲龍捧壽紋團鏡囊 discovered in 1976. Constructed with a 100,000 tiny pearls the robe is
believed to have been part of her dowry. This example and others are
Provenance noted in John Vollmer, Silks for Thrones and Altars, Chinese Costumes
Sotheby’s New York, 18 March 2017, lot 1439 and Textiles, Paris, 2003, pp 48-61, and there are three additional
seed pearl robes in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing and
來源 illustrated in Qing dai gong ting fu shi The Complete Collection of
紐約蘇富比，2017年3月18日，拍品編號 1439 Treasures of the Palace Museum, no 51, Hong Kong 2004.

The exquisite quality of this mirror cover indicates the original owner
can be safely narrowed to the Yongzheng Emperor, the Qianlong
Emperor, his principal wife the Empress Xiaoxian, or the Dowager
Empress. Freshwater pearls harvested from the Sungari, Yalu and
Amur Rivers were an expression of the Manchu homeland, and
their use was strictly regulated within the Qing court. The splendid
appearance of seed pearlwork as illustrated here is due in part to
the hundreds of tiny beads being graded and arranged by their size
and uniformity. With smaller pearls at the edges and larger pearls
used in the center, the precisely threaded pearls enhance the three
dimensional appearance of the dragon.

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