golden pheasant rank badge

golden pheasant rank badge , late 1800s, Qing dynasty (1644–1911)

Where object was made: China

Material/technique: silver thread; embroidering; gold thread; couching; silk; satin stitch

Dimensions:
Object Length/Width (Length x Width): 32 x 32 cm
Object Length/Width (Length x Width): 12 5/8 x 12 5/8 in

Credit line: Gift of Cooper Union through Oberlin College

Accession number: 1954.0347.01

Not on display

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Label texts

Exhibition Label:
“Flowers, Dragons and Pine Trees: Asian Textiles in the Spencer Museum of Art,” Nov-2005, Mary Dusenbury
The bright, almost garish colors date this pair of badges to a period after the introduction of aniline dyes from Europe in the 1870s.
The golden pheasant represented a civil official of the second rank.

Archive Label 2003:
Only one of these badges is visible as the pair is still tacked together as they would have been purchased. The golden pheasant (jin ji) designates a second rank civil official. The bright, almost garish colors date these badges to a period after the introduction of aniline dyes from Europe in the 1870s. They may be further dated by style. In 1898 the young emperor Guangxu issued a series of edicts intended to modernize government, a short-lived endeavor known as the Hundred Days Reform. Rank badges were simplified and the motifs clarified, with an emphasis on Buddhist symbols. Here the pheasant stands confidently in traditional pose with wings outstretched, his red beak echoing the red of the sun-disk, placed close to him and almost on a plane. The pheasant is surrounded by the Eight Buddhist Emblems, clearly and colorfully depicted against a background of swirling clouds.

A border of alternating shou (long life) and xi (happiness) symbols worked in very fine gold and silver-wrapped thread defines the edge of the badge.