Object Description
Chinese Mandarin rank badge, eighth rank civil badge. the badge shows a quail in gilt thread above a stripy turbulent sea. The sun is shown using coiled coral beads in a roundel.
The sky has intense silk embroidery of blue clouds picked out with gilt thread. The sky also has some of the Buddhist sacred items. The badge is surrounded with a border of shou signs and bats for health, longevity and happiness. Overall a lavish badge
the less cluttered the badge the more power and settled an Emperor. Badge was made after 1850
The badge was made for the front of a woman’s robe and was there fore made in two halves and these have now been joined together for conservation. The wife’s badge faced the opposite way to the husband’s badge this was so when they were seated facing their audience, the wife always sat on the left, their birds or animals on the badge would be facing each other.
The eighth rank Mandarin would have been, In charge of studies outside Beijing, a salt examiner, Prefectural secretary or an assistant district magistrate.
All framed and conserved correctly