Chinese Cloud Collars

[agraham43]

Hi-

I purchased these four cloud collars in Shanghai about 15 years ago. They seem to be sized for a child (a boy, I'd imagine) and are anywhere from 8 to 10 inches across with neck holes about 3 or 4" across.

Does anyone have an idea of the dates they would have been made or what their value might be? Where might be the best place to sell them?

Thanks!

[Pelady]

Does the stitching look like machine or hand done? Is the material cotton? Silk? Some of it looks like it is layered over dungaree material...is it?

[agraham43]

Hi-

They are all hand stitched. The background and reverse are cotton, and the figures are sometimes silk, sometimes felt, and sometimes cotton. It isn't layered ouver a dungaree material - there seem to be three layers of cotton used to give the collars more stiffness - but the fabrics used are fairly light in weight.

[KC]

The cloud collars above are pretty!

I am not expert at all on them but have learned quite a bit about them over the years.  Where are you located and where do you believe that these came from?

#1  If you believe you have antique pieces on your hands, take them to a local museum to find someone to validate them.
#2  To me, the embroidery seems too perfect and appears from the pictures to be machine sewn from these pictures.  When you look at the back sides of some the stitching appears to be machine sewn.
That in of itself isn't a bad thing - just shows it isn't a really old piece.  Just as the actual material pieces on some appear to be machine made.

These are most likely items used for holidays/ceremonies to honor the past of the Buddhist and the Mongolian era.  Interesting that none of them have pointed lobes which were more often seen in earliest cloud collars.
A great article for you to read is here:  https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/1560/Cammann__Schuyler__The_Symbolism_of_the_Cloud_Collar.pdf

[talesofthesevenseas]

These are wonderful! They do look like they were made for children. The one I have has a very tiny neck, with a central collar recycled from a mother or grandmother's collar, but it's huge and elaborate, used for a wedding in the early 1900s.