The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

Squared, woven red silk coat and beige trousers. The coat is patterned with repeated circles outlined with white dots in which two geometric ducks face each other, with red heads and legs, and yellow bodies detailed with dark blue and white against a green background. The trousers are patterned in a slightly lighter beige with round flowers evenly interspersed with leaf and bird holding a twig symbols.

A Child’s Coat with Ducks in Pearl Medallions and a Child's Pants

700s

Iran or Central Asia, Sogdiana

silk; weft-faced compound twill, samit
Overall: 48 x 82.5 cm (18 7/8 x 32 1/2 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1996.2
Location: Not on view

Description

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.
  • ?-1996
    (Sara Tremayne, Ltd., London, UK, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1996-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Cleveland Museum of Art, “The Cleveland Museum of Art Acquires Major Works,” March 18, 1996, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    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 Mentioned and reproduced: p. 4-5 archive.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. Mentioned: cat. no. 5, pp. 34-37; Reproduced: p. 36 libmma.contentdm.oclc.org
    Mackie, Louise W. Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century. Cleveland; New Haven: Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2015. Reproduced: P. 65, fig. 2.27; 36, 41-42, 66-67, fig. 2.28; Mentioned: P. 65, 69
    Corty, Axelle. "Mysterieuses Soieries d'Asie Central." Connaissance des arts 745 (Feb. 2016): 84-89. Reproduced: pp. 84-85
    "Highlights from North American Collections." IDP News: Newsletter of the International Dunhuang Project, no. 49-50, Summer 2017, pp. 4-7. Reproduced: p. 7, fig. 5 (coat only)
    The Asian Art Newspaper. "The Splendor of Chinese Textiles: From the Silk Road to the Imperial Court." The Asian Art Newspaper: Monthly for Collectors, Dealers, Museums and Galleries 21, no. 6 (Summer 2018): 25. Reproduced: p. 25
    Pritzker, David Thomas and Wang Xudong 王旭东, editors. Cultural Exchange along the Silk Road: Masterpieces of the Tubo Period (7th-9th Century) = 丝绸之路上的文化交流 : 吐蕃时期艺术珍品. Beijing: 中国藏学出版社 [China Tibetology Publishing House], 2020. Reproduced: p. 28 (coat only), p. 38
    Williams, Elizabeth Dospel. "Khirbat al-Mafjar and the Immersive Materiality of Early Medieval Interiors." In Stucco in the Islamic World: Studies of Architectural Ornament from Spain to India, Edited by Richard McClary, 44-61. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2025. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 56, fig. 3.9b
  • The Splendor of Chinese Silk – Chinese Gallery Rotation 240a, 241c. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 5-August 12, 2018). Coat only.
    Islamic art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 3, 2012-December 9, 2013). Coat only.
    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=A Child’s Coat with Ducks in Pearl Medallions and a Child's Pants|url=false|author=|year=700s|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1996.2