The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Pair of Boots

1000–1125

China, Northern, Liao dynasty

(907-1125)
Silk: compound twill; silk and gold: tapestry; silk: tabby, gauze, batting; leather
Overall: 32.8 x 25 cm (12 15/16 x 9 13/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1992.349.2
Location: Not on view

Description

The fabric and tailoring of garments have always defined social status. For these boots, different outer fabrics were used: a patterned silk for the leg portion, and tapestry (kesi) for the foot. Since both were considered luxury fabrics, they were pieced together from remnants too precious to discard. Consequently, the silk pattern was not used in relation to the form of the boot. By contrast, these boots would have been made for a court official, not a member of the imperial family. The patterned silk was woven with geese flanking a vase of flowers on a stand and surrounded by cloud scrolls. The Chinese motif of flowers arranged in a vase was adopted by the Liao during the 11th century and indicates an 11th- or early 12th-century date for the boots.
  • ?–1992
    (Plum Blossoms, Ltd., Hong Kong, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1992–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1992.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 2 (February 1993): 38–79. Mentioned: p. 77, no. 375 www.jstor.org
    Watt, James C. Y, Anne E Wardwell, Anne E Wardwell, 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, 1997. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 46–48, no. 10
    Klingbiel, Karen, "Conserving the Past", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 37 no. 08, October 1997. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 6–7 archive.org
  • When Silk Was Gold: Central Asian & Chinese Textiles from the Cleveland and Metropolitan Museums of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 26, 1997-January 4, 1998); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (organizer) (March 2-May 17, 1998).
  • {{cite web|title=Pair of Boots|url=false|author=|year=1000–1125|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1992.349.2