Page 96 - Chinese Works of Art Bonhams Sept 2015

PROPERTY FROM THE ROBERT AND CAROL ALLEN COLLECTION
8099
AN IMPERIAL DARK BLUE-GROUND ‘DRAGON ROUNDEL’ KESI SURCOAT, GUNFU
19th century
The robe opening down the front, the dark blue silk ground woven in kesi technique with four
roundels, each containing a golden five-clawed front-facing dragon encircling a flaming pearl
above rolling waves and surrounded by pink and blue bats and two elaborate shou medallions,
each dragon beneath one of the Twelve Symbols of Imperial Authority, the moon on the right
shoulder, the sun on the left shoulder, the constellation on the front and the mountain on the
back, the lining of plain mid-blue silk.
47 1/2in (120.5cm) long
$35,000 - 50,000

十九世紀 石青緞緙絲金龍十二章團紋官服

Provenance
Ex-Collection of Jon Eric Riis

The surcoat was a new type of over-garment developed in the second half of the 18th century.
Its design is intended to complement the dragon robe to be worn underneath: the wide-opening,
shorter sleeves would reveal the horseshoe cuffs of the robe beneath, and the shorter length of
the surcoat deliberately stopped short of the lishui or standing water hem - this hem in turn was
increased in depth during the same period in response to the introduction of the surcoat.

The use of the four of the Twelve Symbols of Authority, and the four dragon roundels, indicates
that only the Emperor himself could have worn this robe, as specified in the Da Qing Hui Dian,
‘Collected Statues of the Great Qing.’ The placement of such symbols on the robe was highly
ritualized, reflecting the cardinal points of the compass and the placement of each sacrificial
altar: as the wearer would have faced South, the sun rose in the East hence it is placed on his
left shoulder, and the moon on his right in the West, the constellation representing Heaven in
the South on his chest, and the mountain representing Earth in the North on his back.

Emperor’s surcoats are extremely rare, but a surcoat (bufu) made for a Crown Prince and
dated 1796-1850 is in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, no.T.754-1950.
Another surcoat with the two of the Symbols, the sun and moon on the shoulders, dated
circa 1800 is illustrated in Celestial Silks: Chinese Religious & Court Textiles, Art Gallery of
New South Wales, Sydney, 2004, p. 65, no. 30. A summer gauze bufu made for a Prince, and
without the Symbols, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, sale 3322, 28 May 2014, lot 3351.

94 | BONHAMS