Chinese 19th/20th Century Qing Dynasty Court Officials Hat
This item is listed for historical interest only. It was listed on our site previously but has been sold and is no longer available for purchase.
Sold for: $450.00

Original era manufacture. This interesting piece of a Qing Dynasty era, Chinese official's headgear is quite probably a souvenir from the Boxer Rebellion, with our example coming from an old southern California collection last year.A circular shaped hat with a three inch band of black velvet on the outside, a black silk covered crown which is decorated with a red cotton cord fringe, a central spike of turned brass and adorned with a single peacock feather.The interior of the hat is of a pink colored cotton duck material with the spike's brass attaching base visible. There is a paper tag with Chinese characters glued into the side of the hat, and several others written into the lining itself, with a purple cotton chinstrap attached to the lining.The hat shows some wear and fraying to the black silk crown, but overall the hat is quite sound. We have provided several images of a framed photograph of Chinese Officials and American officers with their wives for illustration. If you look closely you will see most of the Chinese men wearing similar hats. Photograph is not included in the price. This is the first example of this pattern hat we have ever encountered and had no way of establishing a price-point. Turning to the internet, and also to one of our good customers in Hong Kong for help we learned the following.The turned brass spike is likely a replacement, or at least an unknown in the ranking system of Imperial Chinese headgear. The rank being indicated by a series of jewel-like orbs in elaborate bases at the top of the hat.