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Chinese robes were not only worn at court, and they weren’t only made of solid silk as you may believe. There was a schedule for when spring, summer, fall, and winter robes were to be worn at court and it is likely that informal wear followed the official schedule albeit a little loosely.
This is an example of a summer robe, it is made of gauze. Very light weight and incredibly breathable. These would be worn over an undergarment. These robes are incredibly finely crafted and while delicate are strong due to the inherent properties of silk. There were both formal and informal robes made of gauze for official or unofficial business.
During the spring and fall areas of China can still be incredibly hot. The spring robes or robes designated for a specific purpose, a wedding or a funeral, might not be as breathable as the weather requires and rather than sweat on your expensive silk robes a wearer would put on a jacket like this. Bamboo jackets like this acted to create ventilation for the wearer. The thin pieces of bamboo tied together in a cross hatch pattern, and reinforced with fabric at the collar, cuffs and in other stress points, separate the wearers body from their silk robe allowing a bit of respite on a hot day.
While robes were commonly embroidered with elaborate designs, symbols to project meaning or protect the wearer, not all robes were embroidered. This is an example of a more muted design, the damask silk has the design woven into the fabric itself during its construction.
Colors of robes worn in court had incredible importance. Dating back to emperor Wen of Sui (541-604) the color yellow has been designated as an official imperial color. During the Qing dynasty designations of color use in court robes became tightly regulated. The various colors denoting the rank of the wearer allowed viewers to easily distinguish the position of the person they were interacting with. Blue robes like this one were worn by imperial family members.
While a bright yellow (monghuang) was reserved for the emperor during the Qing Dynasty, crowned princes wore apricot yellow (xinghuang) and a golden yellow (jinhuang) was reserved for non-crown princes. Colors for informal changfu robes were not regulated, yet this golden color is unmistakably associated with the imperial family and whoever the wearer was intended to send a message in their leisure time that they were of import.
R.D. Marmande model cars were the creation of Raymond Daffaure of Marmande, France where he made his unique models from 1957 to 1978. In a world of highly detailed accurate models they could be considered to be naive approximations of the original cars, but they are of great interest to model car collectors and enthusiasts of unique and rare pieces of handicraft. Raymond Daffaure carved his models from balsa wood. He used what he had available to finish out the cars often using recycled packaging to make windshields, pantry netting for grilles, needles for wheel axles, etc. The only parts of his cars that were not made by him or from recycled materials were the tires, said to have come from the model manufacturer Norev. He worked by hand, without a machine tool to chisel and sand his sculptures before hand painting and adding the final effects. He was known to make custom orders. In the late 1950’s there were few model makers and miniature manufacturers. It was during this time that he emerged from anonymity by becoming the winner of the HUMBROL competition in 1958. Over multiple decades he would go on to build between 18,000 and 20,000 of his 1:43 scale models. Our current car model sale has a number of these unique handmade model cars.
Lark Mason Associates Jewelry Auction, includes gold jewelry from the noted designer, artist and direct descendent of Daniel Boone, Carey Boone Nelson. Ms. Nelson was a self-taught sculptor and jewelry designer who studied under the Prix de Rome winner, Arthur Lorenzani and John Hovennes at the Art Students' League in New York and with John Terken of the National Sculpture Society. Her works include The Douglas Munro Monument for the US Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May and the Jimmy Doolittle monument for the US Air Force as well as many other public and private commissions. She was recognized for her accomplishments in the arts by the Salmagundi Club, The National Arts Club, the Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club and was a member of the society of illustrators and the Royal Society of Arts, London.
Many of her designs reference ancient and classical jewelry pieces and natural forms like the two pieces depicted here. Her jewelry has a flair and boldness that spans generational taste.
The Chinese Cultural Revolution was the decade-long socio-political movement headed by Mao Zedong whose death in the mid-1970s spurred an uprising of authors and artists. The newfound courage to artistically express truths of the Revolution expressed through themes of love and faith was named Scar Art or Scar Literature. This movement corresponds to the Beijing Spring, a time of political liberalization after the Revolution, and is the "works of the wounded." Works of art and literature produced during the Scar Movement represent a shift in the society of China. This pseudo-freedom in China inspired Luo Zhongli to represent the hardships experienced by the Chinese people, particularly those of the Daba Mountains.
Zhongli's early works exemplified hyper-realism through portraits of ethnic minorities that waned from the traditional portrayal of noble subjects and stimulated a new perception of the Chinese reality. Depictions of rural folk with aged features and somber expressions are representative of the misfortune of their circumstances. This period of Luo's was evocative of his training at the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Belgium. The reputation of Zhongli and his social commentaries through his artistic expression cultivated his style. His works began to take on a rustic nature, depicting scenes of general life through a folk-art aesthetic with colorful illustrations of manneristic figures in provincial settings. Throughout this phase of his career and into the next, this bold expressionism would become definitive of Luo Zhongli's portfolio. Although Zhongli's style changed vastly over his 4-decade long career his message was constant, the true nature of the people of China is one of hardship and oppression, as well as progression. That although the Chinese culture is traditionally romanticized, it is rooted in real life, and we must remember that the greatness of China is due to the hard-working laborers just as much as it is the nobility.
Two Portraits by Luo Zhongli are featured in iGavel Auction’s Spring 2022 Asian, Ancient, and Ethnographic Works of Art Auction.
By repute, this set was purchased in 1987 directly from Luo Zhongli at his solo exhibition held at the Embassy of Belgium Beijing, China.
The sale of each of the two paintings is live for bidding until April 27, 2022 and start at a conservative reserve.
