By Virginia Ewart | Textiles & Fashion Consultant
Chinese dragon robes are a form of traditional formal or semi-formal clothing worn by Chinese Emperors, nobility and officials.
They are called dragon robes, or ‘Gunlongpao’, because they feature a Chinese dragon as the main embellishment in the design.
Dragons have been an important symbol in Chinese history for millennia. They were officially adopted by the Royal court as a symbol of rank and power by the Tang dynasty 618-908. During the Song dynasty the dragon was worn exclusively by the emperor.
Later during the Qing dynasty other ranks were able to wear the dragon symbol on their robes. The colour of a Dragon robe revealed its wearer’s rank, with yellow being reserved exclusively for royalty, and blue being the colour worn by minor princes and noblemen.
In addition to the colour which determined rank there is the number of claws the dragon displayed. Dragons with five-claws called “long” were used exclusively for the robes and badges of the emperor.
They outranked the five-clawed dragons called “mang”, which were identical in appearance to the long dragon and only distinguished by name.
These were worn by the emperor’s sons, imperial princes of the first rank and his sons, and imperial princes of the second rank.
The four-clawed mang dragon was worn by the emperor’s grandsons, great-grandsons, and great-great-grandsons, also to imperial princes of the third rank down to nobles of the seventh rank. Nobles of the eighth and ninth rank and below, as well as court officials did not wear dragon badges, although their longpao were invariably decorated with five-clawed “mang.”
The horseshoe cuffs which are a feature of the dragon robe where so designed to protect the wearer’s hands whilst horse riding in bad weather, a traditional feature of the clothing of the nomadic Manchu people who established and ruled the Later Jin (1616-1636) and Qing (1636-1912) dynasties of China.
On offer in the Vintage, Antique and Designer Fashion and Textile Sale on September 29 we have a wonderful blue, summer-weight dragon robe or jifu c. 1900. The brocaded silk robe has a royal blue ground woven with silvery gold five-toed dragons and other symbols of imperial authority, for example, the Ji character, flames, mountains, pheasants, waterweeds.
The condition of this robe is excellent, it remains bright and clean and has an estimate of £800-£1,200.
To find out more, or to arrange a free clothing, textiles or fashion valuation, please email: [email protected]
