A Child’s Coat with Ducks in Pearl Medallions and a Child's Pants (700s): Art, History and Details

A Child’s Coat with Ducks in Pearl Medallions and a Child's Pants (700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This luxurious silk coat for a young prince displays ducks in pearl roundels alternating with cross-shaped lotus blossoms woven in five radiant colors of silk. The ducks are adorned with imperial motifs adopted from the previous Sasanian dynasty in Iran including pearl collars, flying ribbons, and a jeweled necklace in their beaks. This silk was woven in Iran or Sogdiana; however, it is lined with Chinese silk damask and has a pair of pants also made with Chinese silk damask, both decorated in an 8th-century style of the Tang Dynasty.

Object facts

• Title: A Child’s Coat with Ducks in Pearl Medallions and a Child's Pants
• Date: 700s
• Culture: Iran or Central Asia, Sogdiana
• Type: Garment
• Technique: silk; weft-faced compound twill, samit
• Dimensions: Overall: 48 x 82.5 cm (18 7/8 x 32 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Textiles
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1996.2

A detail from the museum

Given the coat’s pristine condition, it is unclear whether it was ever worn, or if it was used instead as a diplomatic gift or perhaps as currency.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “The Cleveland Museum of Art Acquires Major Works,” March 18, 1996, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Wardwell, Anne E. "Clothes for a Prince", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 36 no. 08, October 1996
• Watt, James C. Y., Anne E. Wardwell, and Morris Rossabi. When silk was gold: Central Asian and Chinese textiles. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art in cooperation with the Cleveland Museum of Art: Distributed by H.N. Abrams, 1997.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.