Textile Length thumbnail 1
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Not currently on display at the V&A

Textile Length

1900-1920 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Bolt of blue silk velvet with selvedges at each side (one yellow, one orange), containing yardage for one short jacket with a stand-up collar.
The pattern of lattice and foliage roundels is in cut velvet against a satin weave ground. There is a cut velvet inscription woven into the end of the cloth, and a light blue handwritten silk tag sewn to one end of the bolt.


Object details

Category
Object type
Materials and techniques
Silk velvet with patterning in cut velvet on a satin weave ground
Brief description
Length of velvet yardage for a robe, blue silk velvet with patterning in cut velvet on a satin weave ground, China, 1900-1920
Physical description
Bolt of blue silk velvet with selvedges at each side (one yellow, one orange), containing yardage for one short jacket with a stand-up collar.
The pattern of lattice and foliage roundels is in cut velvet against a satin weave ground. There is a cut velvet inscription woven into the end of the cloth, and a light blue handwritten silk tag sewn to one end of the bolt.
Dimensions
  • Length: 424cm
  • Width: 61.5cm
Styles
Marks and inscriptions
Translation
Price: 8.00
Gallery label
This length would have been especially woven to be made up into a man's short jacket with stand-up collar. When Sir John Addis first arrived in China, untailored bolts of silk like this were sold for their exchange value. From 1949, under the 'blue cotton' regime of the Communist state, silk was not much worn in public and lengths like this were sold off to foreigners. Although this particular style of cloth may not have continued in production, the Chinese silk industry remained a significant source of foreign currency earnings. Silk of many kinds was exhibited at the Canton Trade Fairs where the West traded with China's state-run industries before the introduction of a market economy.
Credit line
Addis Bequest
Object history
Registered File number 1965/3344.
Associated object
Bibliographic reference
Wilson, Verity. Chinese Textiles, London: V&A Publications, 2005, page 82, plate 91.
Collection
Accession number
FE.105-1983

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Record createdFebruary 12, 2000
Record URL
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