Page 89 - Christies Asia Week 2015 Chinese Works of Art

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION

2062
TWO RARE EMBROIDERED VELVET
FRAGMENTS OF PHOENIXES

MING DYNASTY, 16TH-17TH CENTURY

The fragments are fnely embroidered with

three phoenixes, one perched on rocks,

one crouched down, and the third grasping

a lingzhi stem in its beak, all with fnely

detailed feathers picked out in shades of

orange, yellow, blue, green, white, and

highlighted in gold-wrapped threads. All are

reserved against elaborate lotus scroll above a

border of alternating vajra and ruyi heads, all

on a dark blue velvet ground.

The larger 25Ω x 14Ω in. (64.7 x 36.9 cm.),

mounted and framed (2)

$8,000-12,000

PROVENANCE:

Acquired in California in 2005.

明十六/十七世紀
藍絨地繡鳳鳥圖殘片兩件

THE PROPERTY OF AN AMERICAN
GENTLEMAN

2063
A RARE PAIR OF BROCADE RANK BADGES
OF QILIN, BUZI

MING DYNASTY, 17TH CENTURY

Made for an imperial noble, the badges are

fnely embroidered in shades of yellow, red,

green and yellow with a ferocious qilin with

scaly body and hoofed legs, its dragon head

turned to the side, on a gold-embroidered

ground of clouds above and the terrestrial

diagram below.

14 x 15 in. (35.6 x 38.2 cm.) (2)

$18,000-25,000

PROVENANCE:

Arthur Leeper Asian Art, California.

Insignia badges were frst introduced shortly
after the establishment of the Ming dynasty
in 1368. The earliest laws governing insignia
badges date from 1391. Those laws specifed
that imperial dukes were permitted to wear
badges decorated with the mythical qilin.
However, during the Ming period, the right to
actually wear the appropriate badge also had to
be granted by the emperor himself, as an honor.
Rank in itself did not entitle even the highest
noble to wear insignia badges.

Another example of this design survives in a 2063
private collection, and is published by Jackson &
Hugus, Ladder to the Clouds, 1999, p. 111. That 87
badge has an identical pattern, but is woven on
a red ground, and has been re-used in Tibet for
ritual purpose.

明十七世紀
織錦武一品麒麟補子一對