THE SIMON CHANG COLLECTION – A very rare Imperial Chinese jifu dragon robe to be worn by an Imperial Prince of the Qing dynasty, the robe finely and intricately woven in satin stitch in shades of blues, reds and coppers, with metallic gold threading on the front, back and inside front panels, showing nine five-clawed Imperial dragons pursuing flaming pearls interspersed with clusters of lingzhi-shaped cloud scrolls, bats, rare floral sprig bouquets and pairs of the eight Buddhist emblems including the endless knot, all set on a chestnut brown silk ground above the terrestrial diagram, the waves with storks and temples, and also showing pairs of the various eight Buddhist emblems within the waves, with lingzhi-shaped clouds and a lishui stripe done in a kesi weave at the hem, this pattern also repeated at the start of the sleeves, with striped sleeve bands, and dark blue-ground collar and matixiu (horse hoof) shaped cuffs decorated with further complimentary dragons and clouds done in similar colored and gold threading, and with a grey edging, 2nd half 18th century. Chesnut brown ground robes are extremely rare and according to the 1759 Illustrated Precedents of the Present Dynasty compiled by the Qianlong Emperor, chestnut brown, called jiang could be worn by the emperor’s sons and first rank princes, but also the emperors himself when visiting their mother or retiring in their private quarters.

Condition statement – water marks to the right side of the robe, some loose elements of stitching.

Literature and Examples – a similar robe in the Mactaggart Art Collection University of Alberta, accession number 2005.5.183 See similar robes sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 October 2013, lot 3088, Bonham’s London, 14 September 2015, lot 8092 and Bonham’s London, 16 May 2019, lot 197