Lot 492. A red silk satin 'hundred boys' three quarter-length jacket, ao, Late Qing Dynasty. Estimate £800 - 1,200 (€1,000 - 1,500). Photo Bonhams.

The brocaded scarlet-red satin richly embroidered in gold thread with eight dragon roundels on a diamond pattern ground formed of interlocking ruyi heads, enclosing blue and violet flower heads and interspersed with boys in various pursuits, all above a gold, blue and green lishui band interspersed with large-headed peonies. 105cm (45 1/4in) long

Property from Mr. and Mrs. C. Lefebvre Collection of Chinese Robes

Notes: The 'hundred boys' motif, charged with auspicious wishes of fecundity and continuity of the family, is a very popular theme in Chinese art, and particularly suited to garments styled for weddings. It is very possible, therefore, that this jacket is a variation of the Han-Chinese wedding jacket, mang'ao, which it follows in shape, colour scheme, and arrangement of dragons. 

For other examples of bridal jackets, mang'ao, see Paul Haig & Marla Shelton, Threads of Gold, Chinese Textiles Ming to Ch'ing, Atglen, PA: 2006, pp. 159-160. For another example of gold-thread rhomboidal diaper ground on a jacket of similar shape, but identified as a Daoist 'idol' jacket and bearing the twelve Imperial symbols of office, see ibid., pp.124-126. 

Bonhams. AUCTION 23541: ASIAN ART, 10:30 BST - LONDON, KNIGHTSBRIDGE