Outer gown for a Manchu woman (changyi), blue twill-weave silk; embroidery in coloured silks, China, Qing dynasty, 1875-1908

Manchu woman's robe. Informal wear. Spring or Autumn. Right side fastening (4 gilt metal buttons with flower pattern), no collar, elbow-length and wide sleeves, straight cuffs, high slit at sides. Yellow satin damask with self-patterned clouds lining. Pale blue silk twill ground embroidered with coloured floss silks in satin stitch. ( white, pink, purple, yellow and orange floss silks.). The main body features begonias sprays and bats and symbols. The facing of the cuffs is made of ice blue satin ground embroidered with the same designs but at a smaller scale. The bright purple long life characters on this robe signify that it was made for an older woman. All the borders are trimmed with a narrow black bias cut satin band and a wider black satin silk band embroidered with similar designs. This dress is similar to these worn by Empress Dowager Cixi at the end of the 19th century.

Purchased with Art Fund support

Registered File number 1947/374. From the collection of Bernard Vuilleumier.

This is a lady's robe, made of embroidered blue silk. It is lined with yellow silk figured with clouds. Bands of black satin adorn the collar and edges. The embroidered discs of longevity characters indicate that this was made for someone more elderly. There are also auspicious floral motifs, and the embroidered bats also extend wishes of luck and good fortune (the Chinese word for bats is a homophone of the word for luck). The embroidered motifs are repeated on the sleeves.

T.231-1948