A MANCHU WOMAN'S DARK BLUE VELVET 'BUTTERFLIES' INFORMAL VEST, KANJIAN

Late 19th century

Late 19th century
This rich velvet of deep vibrant blue colour is woven as a cut velvet waistcoat with a design of large butterflies within an inner lace-like border of peonies and begonias and an outer border of smaller butterflies and various floral and bamboo sprigs, finely lined with bold pink silk damask woven with a wan pattern, with fashionable Western-style buttons. The narrow tailoring is original reflecting the western fashion beginning to appear in China at the end of the Qing dynasty. 87cm (34 2/8in) long.

十九世紀晚期 藍色絲絨花蝶紋坎肩

Provenance: Linda Wrigglesworth, London

來源：倫敦Linda Wrigglesworth

Sleeveless coats were known as maja or kanjian. They were introduced by the Manchu elites of the Qing dynasty and were always worn over other garments. The present waistcoat would have been worn by a high-ranking female member of the Qing society during the colder seasons, the maja coat was worn over a full-length Manchu robe for extra warmth; see J.Vollmer, Ruling from the Dragon Throne: Costumes of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Berkeley, CA, 2002, pp.49-52.

Compare with a slightly shorter blue-ground cut velvet waistcoat, 19th century, in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, illustrated by J.Vollmer, Ruling from the Dragon Throne: Costumes of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Berkeley, CA, 2002, p.51, fig.2.22. See also two similarly-shaped and fastened silk informal Manchu woman's informal vests, late 19th century, decorated with similar designs of butterflies but embroidered, rather than being made of cut-velvet, illustrated by J.Vollmer, Imperial Silks. Ch'ing Dynasty Textiles In the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MA, 2000, pp.606-607, nos.263-264.