A rare imperial blue-ground kesi surcoat (jiagua). Qing dynasty, 18th-19th century. Photo Sotheby's

 the front-opening surcoat woven on the front and back with eight symmetrically placed dragon medallions, four forefacing and four in profile, each worked in gold-wrapped threads resplendent above cresting waves, encircled by the bajixiang, vaporous clouds and bats, the dragons in profile clutching a flaming pearl, all reserved on a midnight-blue ground above roiling waves with foaming crests interspersed with the bajixiang, centered by the terrestrial diagram, above ruyi-form froth and a narrow lishui band, the short sleeves with striding dragons and a conforming wave hem. Width over sleeves 58 3/4 in., 149.5 cm. Estimate 50,000-70,000 USD

PROVENANCE: Collection of Dr. Harvey J. Howard (1880-1956).

NOTE: Dr. Howard was born in Churchville, New York and did his first rotation in China from 1910-1915 as head of the Opthalmology department at the University Medical School, Canton Christian College. After research at Harvard on a Rockefeller Foundation Scholarship as well as a commission as captain in the US army during WWI, he returned to China for an appointment as Head of Opthalmology at Union Medical College in Peking from 1917-1927 and it was within this period, from 1921-25, that he was the ophthalmologist to the young emperor Pu Yi who honored him with the gift of the robe.

This type of surcoat was most likely worn by an empress or dowager empress over a semi-formal robe. A similar robe with the requisite four full facing and four profile dragons is illustrated by Robert D. Jacobsen, Imperial Silks: Ch'ing Dynasty Textiles in The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, vol. 1, Minneapolis, 2000, pl. 109. See a robe sold at Christie's, New York, 23rd March 1995, lot 275 and another, although on a black ground, sold 2nd June 1994, lot 187.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art. New York. 14 september 2011 www.sothebys.com