Chinese Imperial Dress Uniform, ca. 1900
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GUEST:
My aunt was a missionary in China for 40 years, from 1908 to 1948, and she acquired this over there somehow. I don't know how, whether it was given to her or whether she bought it or what, I don't know. She passed away in 1959, and we were looking through some old trunks in a storage building, and here we had stuff left.
APPRAISER:
So that's been there since 1948. And when did you open the box?
GUEST:
About a month ago. We were going to tear this whole building down, so I thought we'd better get these out of there. The box said, "Chinese suit of armor," which I looked at it and it looks more like a ceremonial garb of some sort, but that's just my guess.
APPRAISER:
Good guess, because it is a ceremonial suit of armor. But it's not just any ceremonial suit of armor. When your great-aunt was in China in 1908, right around that period of time, there was a lot of change going on in China. You had the Emperor Guangxu passed away, and a new emperor was installed who took the title of Xuantong. We know of him as Puyi, as the last emperor, so there's a transition going on from one emperor to another. But then shortly afterwards, there was the end of the Qing dynasty.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
And the Qing dynasty was ruled by the Manchu, the Manchu people, and that was what's called a minority tribe within China. So we know that this was made at a time when the Qing dynasty was still in existence. Now, the next question is, who was this made for? Somebody of importance. This is not your ordinary person. So you've got a number of different emblems and symbols here that indicate, such as the dragon... Not just one dragon, you have dragons emblazoned all over these gilt metal supports on the shoulders, woven into the designs, and this body of the fabric itself is gold-wrapped silk thread.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
With these brass studs. So this was for someone of a high rank. And we also know a little bit more about this person because when we turn this around, we find that it came with a bow holder, so we know that this person was an archer. And we're going to turn it around all the way, and you can again see the gilt metal mounts on the side, and right here, this is where the arrows went.
GUEST:
Oh, okay.
APPRAISER:
So we know that this was made as an imperial ceremonial dress.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
For very formal, important state occasions. The fur, the feathers, which are painted with dragons, emblazoned with dragons, and this faceted crystal, which is actually glass, but is a ruby color, indicates this was an officer of the first rank. And guess what happened after the Qing dynasty fell? There wasn't a lot of call for having these kept, so very few of these survived. So you have something that is in impeccable, fantastic condition that's been kept basically in a box since 19...
GUEST:
‘48.
APPRAISER:
'48. And when we took this out of the box, we did our very best to put it together, but some of this might not be exactly right. What do you think this is worth?
GUEST:
You're making me think higher, but I don't know, $500 or $1,000, maybe.
APPRAISER:
$500 or $1,000? What if I was to say, at auction, $100,000 to $150,000?
GUEST:
Whoa. Pretty unbelievable.
APPRAISER:
And I have to say, my colleagues and I, we're not even sure. It may even be more than that.
GUEST:
Really? Whoa. I'm floored. (chuckling) Yeah.
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