A historically important Chinese Imperial embroidered silk p...

Hammer

£6,500

A historically important Chinese Imperial embroidered silk purse, hebao, Qianlong period, c.1793, the kidney-shaped coral coloured satin purse finely embroidered in coloured silks to each side with three bats and two wan symbols amid ruyi-shaped clouds, above waves and lishiu strips, the draw string and cords set with three cut and moulded yellow glass flowerhead shaped beads, 12.5cm wide, with inscribed note of provenance inside dated 1822.

Literature - this purse is illustrated in G. Dickinson and Linda Wrigglesworth, Imperial Wardrobe, Bamboo Publishing, 1990, Pl.4, p16.

Provenance - by repute presented by the Qianlong Emperor to George Thomas Staunton, the page to Lord Maccartney, Britain’s Ambassador to China from 1792-1794.
The event took place on 14 September 1793 at Chengde when Staunton, though only a boy, was the only person able to converse in Chinese other than the interpreter. The Emperor of China gave Sir George Thomas Staunton a silk purse on the occasion, which in turn was given by Staunton to the Royal Asiatic Society in 1856 and appears to have left the collection subsequently.
Sir George Thomas Staunton (1781-1859) was one of the founders of the Royal Asiatic Society, and served as its Vice-President, but he is chiefly known as Great Britain’s foremost student of Chinese language and culture during the first half of the nineteenth century. Having accompanied his father on the Macartney Embassy to China while still a boy, Staunton had an early start in the study of Chinese, and by the time he returned to China as a young man to work for the East India Company, he was already more knowledgeable about Chinese than any other of his countrymen.

More Information

Slight fading to the coral satin in places. Some small losses to the black silk wan symbols along the folds. A little grubby around the edges otherwise in good condition. The note written in ink on paper is folded up inside the purse.