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Description: | Wear round the neck and hem and buttonhole fastenings suggest that this costume was worn regularly. The front is in pristine condition and the garment was probably worn under a covering coat.
It was collected and possibly worn by William Charles Campbell in China. Campbell was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1861. He joined the consular service as a student interpreter in 1884, having achieved first place in the United Kingdom in a competitive examination which took him to study interpreting Chinese at Birkbeck College London.
His travel account of an early journey to Korea is 'an extraordinary account of Korean life'. A trip to Mongolia became a rescue mission for American missionaries in Kalgan when the Boxer Rebellion caught up with them, and in the turbulent events of 1900 he joined Admiral E.H. Seymour in an attempt to relieve the Legations in Peking.
His account and books of maps of subsequent journeys on foot through Mongolia and Tibet are mentioned as a 'record of little known countries written by an observant traveller and naturalist' (Blue Book No. 1. British Parliamentary Publication Sept. 1904).
Mr. Campbell, married in 1903 to Violet Coutts of Shanghai, served as a consul in Chengdu and then Peking before retiring to England because of ill health in 1911. He died in London at the age of 65.
Man's robe, jifu, probably for a civil servant of the third or fourth rank. Blue body, black neckline and cuffs, and a wide green hem decorated with multicoloured embroidery. The decoration consists of three five-clawed dragons on the front, two on the shoulders and three on the back, each with an accompanying pearl. They are surrounded by bats, fish, canopies and lotus flowers worked in pink, green, brown, yellow, and cream, as well as gold-coloured metal-wrapped thread. The wide hem is decorated with a cloud and wave pattern. Three rocks, or mountains, rise from the centre of the waves. At either side on the front are semicircular shapes surrounded by flames. On the back these are replaced by scrolls. The back neckline is decorated with several pairs of facing dragons to either side of a pearl, above a wave pattern and is edged with gold-coloured ribbon. The neckline and opening on the side are fastened with five blue silk knots and loops. The black cuffs consist of two sections. The upper, sleeve-shaped section is decorated with sets of three metal-wrapped thread stripes. The curved section is decorated with a dragon, similar to those on the neckline, framed by bats and clouds. This section is also edged with the gold-coloured ribbon. The robe is split at the centre of front and back, and lined partially with turquoise silk or green cotton.
caption: Frontal view of object no. 2004.6.
caption: Rear view of object no. 2004.6.
caption: Detail showing design on object no. 2004.6. | Publisher: | http://www.horniman.ac.uk/ | Rights holder: | Horniman Museum and Gardens | Subjects: | robes silk cotton Silk Embroidery Textiles tabby (textile) paper thread Robes twill textile | Source: | Horniman Museum | Identifier: | oai:oai.horniman.ac.uk:object-116970 | Go to resource |
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