Cosu Robe Fragments

This pair of cosu robe fragments come from an 18th century robe. The Qing court maintained a strict hierarchy that dictated the color and imagery of an individual’s clothing. The Emperor wore yellow and his close associates wore tawny brown. The color of this robe links it to the circle of Qing elite.

The dragon was also part of imperial imagery. Both of these fragments feature a dragon along with earth, water, and clouds, which together represent the known universe. These panels would have appeared on the lower left and right of a Qing court robe with a third, front-facing, dragon in the upper center of the robe. The complete robe would have looked similar to the Qing robes you can see in museum collections, like those at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.