coat; jacket; festival-costume BM-As1998-01.173

Period:Unknown Production date:20thC
Materials:cotton, job’s tears, feather, silk (felt), paper, wool,
Technique:sewn, dyed, embroidered, appliqué, spun (textiles), woven, twill weave, felted,

Dimensions:Length: 115 centimetres (including feathers) Width: 144 centimetres (across arms)

Description:
Coat or jacket; man or woman’s Guzhang festival costume or ‘Hundred Bird Coat’. Base cloth of unbleached cotton with seeds still in. Hand-spun and hand-woven in diamond twill weave. No collar; cut away on side fronts to give ‘v’ neck, sleeves made from three pieces. Eleven free hanging panels attached to main part of jacket. Decorated with applied pieces of silk felt backed either by paper or cloth. Triangles of red silk-like cloth on front. All pieces are embroidered in satin stitch in floss silk. Silk felt stained unevenly in bright green; embroidery mainly in strong red, blue, black and white with some use of yellow, mauve and maroon. Front has motifs of birds and butterflies; rear has central motif of two spiralling birds surrounded by four butterflies, with bottom strip of repeated curved ‘moon’ shapes. Sleeves have motifs of schematic creatures. On skirt panels are two designs; white feathers set in folded-over squares of red cloth are attached, using Job’s Tears seeds.
IMG


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