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Woman’s Non-Official Formal Vest (xia bei)

Han Chinese, 1866-1910

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Woman’s Non-Official Formal Vest (xia bei)

Han Chinese, 1866-1910

Physical Qualities Silk embroidered in silk and gold and silver(?) wrapped embroidery threads, 40 x 29 in. (101.6 x 73.7 cm.)
Credit Line Gift of the Misses Corner
Object Number 1939.80
Form: Calf-length garment; center front opening, fastened with two brass ball toggle buttons and loops; sides open and tacked together at two points. Decoration: TERRESTRIAL DIAGRAM - two four-clawed dragons (front) and two phoenixes (reverse), some Precious Things, flowers in waves, multi-colored water and clouds; SQUARE - court insignia badge of the 5th rank civil official with silver pheasant in cosmic landscape with peaches and flowers; YOKE - four scrolled lobes with peonies; BANDS - adjacent to hem with flowers; BORDERS - binding, netting, and tassles. Description: BODY - black silk satin ground embroidered in multi-colored, twisted or plied, silk threads (shades of blue, maroon, green, taupe or gray, gold, peach, white, black, orange), primarily in satin stitch and couched gold-wrapped (and possibly silver-wrapped) threads; BORDER - edged in couched gold-wrapped threads and embroidered in blue and white floral designs; INSIGNIA BADGE - embroidered direction on back ground using gold-wrapped threads for fretwork border and multi-colored silk threads for designs; TRIMMING - black silk binding, green netting with tassels in multicolored silk threads (maroon, mauve, green, gold, ivory, white); LINING - plain blue silk.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1939; Mary and Helen Corner
John Vollmer, "Decoding Dragons: Status Garments in Ch'ing Dynasty China," Eugene, OR: University of Oregon Museum of Art, 1983, ill. pl. 19, p. 56, ex. p. 190; ill. pl. 59, p. 105, ex. p. 201.

Ernest E. Leavitt, Jr. "The Silkworm and the Dragon," Tucson, AZ: Arizona State Museum, 1968, p. 15, fig. 2 (incorrectly identified as ch'ao-kua).

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