Description
decorated with applied gilt thread with leafy bamboo branches on a navy blue ground, with embroidered borders of flowers and peacocks, the embroidered cuffs with further flowers amid scrolling ribbons
Dimensions
112cm long
Footnote
Provenance:
The Collection of Vernon Walker (1891-1960). Thence by family descent.
Vernon Walker was a Scottish railway engineer, who arrived in Hong Kong in 1921 to join the Hong Kong Tramways as an assistant workshop superintendent. He then worked his way up to become Chief Engineer in 1939, thus contributing directly to the construction of this city icon. By family repute he put together a collection of Chinese works of art between the two Wars. However he was then interned in the POW camp in Stanley together with his wife Doris and daughter Veronica, and had to leave most of his collection behind. Only these robes were saved and brought back to the United Kingdom, and have been treasured by his descendants since.