Qing dynasty, 19th century. A blue fabric clad conical box holding a summer hat with a conical bamboo frame, covered in silk gauze, decorated with a tassel of twisted red sik, with a blue trim, surmounted by a gilt metal button, signifying an official of 7-8 rank level. The black satin autumn hat with stif brim, fine twisted red silk tassel and a clear glass button signifying an official of the fifth rank. The label on the inside of the autumn hat tells us the family and personal name of the owner. A blue fabric clad box containing a mandarins feather plume. Height of box 25 cm. Diameter of box 35 cm. Length of plum 35 cm. Measure of box 41x3.6x5 cm. A jade carved as a pipe-shaped finial for a Mandarin's or other official's hat, and a group of mandarin insignias for hats.
Provenance
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 set sold at Christies, Lot 114, the Imperial Wardrobe, 19 Mars 2008.
Compare also with a hat in the collection of the British Museum, donated by: James Edge-Partington. Acquisition date
1909. Registration number
1909,0609.1.a-c
For the tall mandarin hat insignia, compare a similar one in the collection of the British Museum, Museum number
M.6997. This is a Chinese Mandarin hat button (Chinese: 顶戴), for third class Mandarins, for ceremonial and full dress occasions. .
Literature
G. Dickinson and L. Wrigglesworth, Imperial Wardrobe, Berkeley and Toronto, rev. ed., 2000, p. 113, pl. 95. Compare the feather plume.
More information
Under Manchu formal dress regulations, the colors of hat finials were used to distinguish official ranks: the four army divisions known as Banners were originally represented by ruby finials for the Red Banner, sapphires for the Blue Banner, rock crystals for the White Banner and gold for the Yellow Banner.
The summer hat was intended for summer use, as indicated by the silk material over a light-weight bamboo frame, and the additional ceremonial hat spike suggests that it was made for formal court ceremonials. Compare a similar hat dated to 1875 and exhibited at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, illustrated in the catalog Celestial Silks: Chinese Religious & Court Textiles, Sydney, 2004, p. 90, where the author notes that the pearl on the front brim was a feature adopted by the Kangxi Emperor.
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