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(c) 2022 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Pair of Hair Ornaments
(c) 2022 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
(c) 2022 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Pair of Hair Ornaments

Date19th century
Place MadeChina, East Asia
MediumJade, coral, cloisonné, metalwork, kingfisher feathers
Dimensions6.3 cm (2 1/2 in.)
ClassificationsJewelry
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberU18e38.1-2
eMuseum ID727488
EmbARK ObjectID15579
TMS Source ID4122
Last Updated8/14/24
Status
Not on view
Web CommentaryIn Beijing on October 6, 1883, Isabella visited a shop and noted, “Saw there wonderful decorations and jewels bought for bride, of stones, and king-fisher feathers.” It is very likely that she purchased this pair of hair ornaments and a pendant at this time. Objects decorated with the iridescent blue feathers of the kingfisher were highly prized in China for their exceptional color and sheen, and perhaps also because of the painstaking process of cutting and pasting the minute feathers.

Source: “Chinese Objects,” in Journeys East: Isabella Stewart Gardner and Asia, edited by Alan Chong and Noriko Murai (Boston: ISGM and Gutenberg Periscope, 2009): 445-446.
BibliographyNotesGilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 145. (as Chinese, dated about 1850)
Alan Chong and Noriko Murai. Journeys East: Isabella Stewart Gardner and Asia. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2009), pp. 206, 445-47, fig. 15. (as dated 19th century)
ProvenanceNotesProbably purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner in Peking (Beijing), 6 October 1883.
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