A midnight blue silk 'Chao Pao'/ceremonial robe, Qing dynasty, 1850's.
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A midnight blue silk embroidered in counted stitch with silk and gilt wrappet thread, decorated with five clawed dragons, auspicious emblems and terrestial diagrams clouds as well as with jewels emerging from waves at the waist and sleeves. A set of dragon roundels on the skirt. Length arm to arm 180 cm. Height back 130 cm. Later lining.
Wear. An embroidered square that usually are found on these robes seems to be missing.
Provenance
Purchased at Uppsala Auktionskammare. Lot no 959. June 2012.
Property of a private Finnish Collection.
The collection was formed between 1980-2020, the collector has had an interest in China and Chinese Works of Art since childhood, growing up in Beijing. He returned to China in grownup years for work, he came to live in China altogether more than 40 years. His love of China, and Chinese works of art is mirrored in the collection and being an academic collector, he never got tired of learning more about the subject by studying literature, attending lectures, visiting museums, auction houses and befriending curators from Beijing, Hong Kong, London, Paris, and Stockholm. The collection consists of both Chinese ceramics and textiles, This being a part of the textile collection.
Exhibitions
Compare with a robe of this type but with striped arms in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1964. Object Number: 64.214.
Compare also with one in the Philadelfia Museum of Art, Credit Line: Carl Schuster Collection, 1947. Accession Number: 1947-4-1.
Literature
Another example of a mid-19th century chaopao is illustrated in Robert D. Jackson, Imperial Silks: Ch'ing Dynasty Textiles in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, vol. I, Minneapolis, 2000, no. 1.
A complete set consisted of the chaopao, such as the present lot, a hat with appropriate button finial, a detachable collar, a belt, a surcoat with rank badge, and a court necklace of one-hundred and eight beads.
More information
The robe of state, or chaofu, is the most formal of the imperial Qing robes, and was worn by the emperor and by his high officials during important annual rites. The slim-fitting sleeves and horse-hoof-shaped cuffs, which are vestiges of jackets for horseback hunting in cold weather, illustrate a Manchu adaptation of the traditional Han Chinese court dress, as does the shorter length of the garment. Such adaptations were formalized in 1759 when the style and decoration of court robes were standardized under regulations which also designated colors and designs for different types of robes. The dark blue color and four-clawed dragons on this robe indicate it would have been worn by an individual ranking somewhere between a third degree prince and a fourth degree official.