Page 63 - 2020 September Fine Chinese Paintings and Works of Art, Bonham NYC

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A WOMAN’S EMBROIDERED WOOL INFORMAL ROBE,
CHANGYI
Likely Imperial, late 19th century This strikingly designed robe is a vivid example of Late Qing court
The red wool broadcloth finely embroidered with paper white fashions, with the Imperial court under the sway of the Dowager
narcissus--their bulbs and roots exposed--on the front and back in Empress Cixi. The exuberance of the blossoming paper white
silk floss and wrapped metallic threads, with a dark silk border, the silk narcissus captures the aesthetic of informal woman’s dress within the
sleeve bands embroidered with butterflies. inner circles of the Imperial family during this otherwise tumultuous
54in (137cm) long period.

$12,000 - 18,000 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
十九世紀晚期 紅地繡水仙蝴蝶紋羊毛敞衣 continuation of the Qianlong court’s interest in embracing the foreign,
the Manchu elite of late Qing society adopted British-made wool as
Provenance a fashion statement of exotic luxury. For more on the use of British
Charles A. Whitaker Auction Co, 21 October 2017, lot 412 wool in China at the end of the 19th century see Rachel Silberstein,
“Fashioning the Foreign: Using British Woolens in Nineteenth-Century
来源 China”, in: Pyun K., Wong A. (eds) Fashion, Identity, and Power in
Charles A. Whitaker拍賣行，2017年10月21日，拍品編號412 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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