Taking a Break

We are taking a break until the end of July while we are getting settled in our new home... we will have some exciting new pieces for both the PhotoBlog and the Listings Gallery... See you in August! 

Chinese Qing Dynasty Rank Purse

At first glance this appears to be a lovely elaborately embroidered ladies handbag, silk thread on silk cloth with Peking glass handles. There is an interesting story behind this elegant purse.

During the Qing Dynasty officials wore badges sewn to their robes which indicated their rank and area of service. All military officials wore badges embroidered with specific animals... the civil officials wore badges embroidered with various birds. The badges were square... a solid square on the back of the jacket and a split square on the front at the opening.

 

This custom evolved over time and in the 19th century the wives of court officials were allowed to wear squares that indicated their  husband's rank... with one difference... on a man's badge the animal or bird faces left on the wife's badge, it would face right.

 

So this handbag, embroidered with a peacock would have been the property of a woman married to a civil official of the third rank.

For more information, there is an interesting article on Wikipedia.

Visit PrivateCollection's PictureBook to see additional photos... many in larger formats.

Chinese White Jade Beads

My photographer had to spend a lot of time with these beads...  they have a life and personality that changes with the time of day and light.

He offered to buy them so that he wouldn't have to photograph them anymore... I said "no!". So he presented me with six different lighting and background combinations and asked me to: "take my pick!"

I believe that these beads were originally part of a Mandarin Court Necklace. The 28 smaller 11 mm beads are semi-translucent white jade with pale green undertones... carved with a stylized Shou symbol on 4 sides. The three 20mm larger beads are an opaque pale green with the Shou on 2 sides and provide a stable contrast for the liveliness of the smaller beads.

These beads came from a man who told me; "my mother brought back a much larger necklace from a visit to China in the 1960's and had her jeweler make it into several separate necklaces which she gave to family and friends as a souvenir of her trip."

It makes me wonder... how many Mandarin Court Necklaces met a similar fate?

Visit PrivateCollection's PictureBook to see additional photos... many in larger formats.

Chinese Ingenuity in Silver

As we looked at the list trying to decide what to write about next...it occurred to me that it made some sense to write about another Qilin to build on the information in the last 2 posts.

This 1920's bracelet is not only a great example of how a Qilin is used ornamentally but also the ingenuity found in Chinese silver jewelry.

From each end of the cuff a Qilin head grins at you...surrounded by floral and palm engravings... the top of the cuff is carved repoussé birds. The massive size and elaborate workmanship make this an ostentatious display of wealth and power.

 [ photos by: RidgewoodEntrust ]

Several years ago I found a smaller bracelet with the same construction made of brass and copper.
Both bracelets have the same makers mark; #23 SG MADE IN CHINA... but clearly these were custom made for different wrists.

This is the most ingenious construction I have ever seen in a bracelet... The artist took the form of of the bracelet and turned the entire bracelet into a clasp.

 

We have shown this to several jewelry experts and they agree... what a remarkable combination of form and function... not to mention beauty!

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Chinese Silver Coral Qilin Bracelet

The silver Qilin pendant in my last post is not the only use of this popular mythological figure in Chinese ornaments... the rank badges of high court officials would be embroidered with the Qilin, it appeared in all ornamental forms from paintings to paper lanterns.

  

This salmon coral carving of the Qilin is one of the rarer examples...likely a 19th century carving set c.1900-1930 as a bracelet...a custom setting ...one I have never seen before...features six Qilin in silver, repoussé carved and chased.

 

The mark is also informative: PEIPING CHINA SILVER BEE...

PEIPING is an older spelling of Peking; now Beijing. Very few pieces of Chinese jewelry identify the region in which the piece was made... here we have the place as well as the mark of the maker or workshop - BEE.

The field of Chinese export jewelry is a relatively new area for collectors ...there are no reference books...so collecting interesting marks like this one is almost as exciting as the rare coral carving.

Visit PrivateCollection's PictureBook to see additional photos... many in larger formats.

Chinese Silver Qilin and Bead Necklace

The Qilin ( pronounced "chee-lin") is a mythological creature ....one of the four mythological creatures that have been part of Chinese culture for many centuries. Sometimes it is referred to as the Chinese Unicorn ...it is always a symbol for good fortune in many forms.

c. 19th century, Qilin with figure carrying a fan, all silver, front repoussé chased detail, flat back.

The Qilin necklace could be worn by a young man wishing for good grades on his civil service examinations or worn by a wife hoping to give birth to many sons.  A smaller version might be worn by a child for protection. The Qilin also governed the west ...so it is connected with the ideas of maturity and fulfillment.

Traditionally, Chinese Silver ornaments such as this Qilin were worn simply with a heavy silver chain... the beads on this one were probably added some time during the 20th century to make the necklace more appealing to the western market.

At the time I purchased this, the old bead string was rotting and needed to be replaced. The beads themselves were so unusual and uncommon; translucent jade, melon carved silver, celadon carved with the Shou symbol, I made the decision to keep them together.

The Qilin pendants offered artisans who worked in silver an opportunity to express their creativity...you could probably spend a lifetime just collecting Qilins and never find two alike.

Visit PrivateCollection's PictureBook to see additional photos, many in a larger format.

Chinese Reeled and Plied Silk Thread

The Mystery of the Mandarin Court Bead

People who know me will know that I love a good mystery... from Sherlock Holmes to Miss Marple and Joe Leaphorn... and for many years I have been puzzled by finding fabulous Chinese beads with holes that were so large that no standard thread was large enough to create a knot between the beads.

Bead people know that valuable beads and pearls are always strung on silk cord, knotted between each bead.

Last year I found this fragment of  a Mandarin Court necklace... hollow carved bone beads...with a thread that I had never seen before. The 4mm hole in the bead was filled with a thread many times thicker than any commercial silk thread I have ever seen.

 

As my interest in collecting Chinese ornaments grew and I acquired more partial and complete court necklaces, I kept promising myself that 'someday soon' I would get back around to finding out more about that mysterious thread. 

So finally this week I showed the thread to my fibre consultant Laurie Goldiuk who explained to me that this thread is handmade reeled silk... silk drawn from the cocoon of the silkworm ...multiple cocoons were simultaneously reeled and plied to create the thread you see here.

Mystery solved ...because so many court necklaces were cut up in the 20th century, the original thread was often discarded ...court necklaces were prayer beads and wouldn't be knotted ...and this thick plied silk used with the large holes would allow some movement of the beads and protect the precious stone beads from damage.

If you have a bit of time, there is also a very good web site [link] that illustrates the fascinating process that Asian artisans have used for centuries to produce silk.

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Chinese White Jade Caving

The figures, bald and smiling are commonly referred to as the Heavenly Twins or Hoho Twins or Hehe-Erxian Twins...they symbolize perfect partnership and express the idea that harmony is more profitable than strife … so for centuries they were offered as wedding gifts in China.

This lovely example gives me an opportunity to compare two similar jade carvings... this and one from the  07-06-01 Chinese Wedding Set-Jade and Silver post.

 

The one on the left is from the previous post...the current piece is on the right.

Both pieces are white jade, both are hand carved and reticulated.. but this example is rarer than the first…the jade is a finer stone with more luster and the carving is more elaborate; all the edges are fully rounded and both sides of the stone are fully carved with the same scene … a tour de force of carving.

The custom gold frame is a later addition …and reflects the value the owner placed on this piece.

c.18th-19th century, carved white (mutton fat) jade Heavenly Twins... set in 20th century custom made 14KYG frame. Frame: 4.5cm x 5.8cm, Jade: 4cm x 5.5cm, Thickness: 5mm.

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Chinese Silver Jade Set by Liu

In the world of Chinese silver jewelry and ornament, very few individual craftsmen have been identified.

Many dramatic pieces like the large enamel or Daoist Wedding Bracelet would logically have been the work of several artists ... a silversmith, a specialist in enameling and a stone carver ...so each piece is the product of a workshop not an individual artist.

 

So I was excited when I found this set... with the name of its artist... the same artist who set the sapphire and seed pearl necklace I featured in my December 06, 2007 post.

Liu has a distinct personal style ... no repoussé or carving ... his delicate floral's and figural symbols are engraved on vermeil. The style suggests to me that he worked in the period between 1890 and 1920 when this lighter style was very popular in western markets.

 

The quality of the stones he uses in the pieces I own...the fabulous sapphire ...the high grade translucent jade, also suggest that his work was primarily custom made. Thank you Mr. Liu!

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Chinese Coral Enamel Kingfisher Set

Eye candy... that's what I call this set ... the brilliant blue of kingfisher feathers is a perfect contrast for the tube of coral seed beads... a medium salmon red.

 

I had a dear friend of mine, a professional bead artist, examine this necklace to explain how is was constructed. He says the coral was needle woven with a tubular 'peyote' stitch (also know as a gourd stitch). This stitch was named 'peyote' in the U.S. in the late 19th century because it was often used by Native Americans ...research shows this stitch was also used in Africa and Guatemala... so while none of the resources that I checked mentioned China ... it is pretty obvious from this piece that it was used there... if anyone knows what it is named in China, I would love to hear from you.

Ornaments like these one were worn by women in the Mandarin Court and were symbols of wealth and status. Costly materials ... the coral imported from Italy, the rare feathers... the intensive labor, all combine to make this fragile beauty as rare and desirable as it was 150 years ago.

 

[adapted with screw back findings c.1920]

Eiberhard comments in the Dictionary of Chinese Symbols, 1986: "Chinese are people of the eye." This set is a wonderful example.

Visit PrivateCollection's PictureBook to see additional photos.