The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 14, 2025

Embroidery from a Cloud Collar: Ocean, Rocks, and Peonies

1300s

China, Yuan dynasty

(1271-1368) - early Ming dynasty (1368-1644)
silk and silver thread, silvered paper; needleloop embroidery
Overall: 63.8 x 60 cm (25 1/8 x 23 5/8 in.); Mounted: 69.8 x 67.3 cm (27 1/2 x 26 1/2 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1993.10
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Judging from the border on the lower portion, this fragment is most of one lobe of a cloud-collar medallion. Each of the three other original sections would have been embroidered with the same design.

Description

Against a deep blue satin ground, a peony tree emerges from an undulating sea. This embroidery was made using the needle looping technique, in which rows of detached loops are worked over silvered paper, attaching the ground only along the contours of the design. The design is filled with auspicious symbols, including the peony symbolizing wealth and honor, and the rock (shoushi 壽石) symbolizing longevity. There are small Buddhist symbols among the flowers, including the wheel of the law, a pair of conch shells representing the sounds of the Buddha’s teachings, and a swastika, an auspicious symbol signifying good fortune introduced into China from India with Buddhism.
  • ?–1993
    (Lisbet Holmes Textiles, London, England, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1993–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • "1993 Annual Report." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 6 (1994): 143–218. Reproduced: p. 214; Mentioned: p. 167 www.jstor.org
    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. Reproduced: pp. 186–187, cat. no. 55 libmma.contentdm.oclc.org
  • Layers of Meaning: China’s Flora and Fauna in Painting and on Porcelain. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 6, 2020-June 6, 2021).
    Gallery 239 textile rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 9, 2015-March 10, 2016).
    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=Embroidery from a Cloud Collar: Ocean, Rocks, and Peonies|url=false|author=|year=1300s|access-date=14 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1993.10