A CHINESE BLUE SILK AND GOLD THREAD PLEATED DRAGON AND PHOENIX SKIRT, EARLY 20TH CENTURY. Finely embroidered in gilt thread with two panels, one with a dragon and the other a phoenix amongst clouds, flanked by Shou characters, flowers, clouds and fret pattern, within black silk panelled pleated sections worked with bats, precious objects and clouds, lined with pale blue silk. 100 cm long

Overall in very good order, the blue silk remains bright and the embroidery is finely worked. There is some very minor fading and discolouration to the blue silk, but this to very small areas and is not particularly noticeable. There are some very small areas where the gilt thread is slightly loose, again this is very minor, there is some loose stitching to the black edged pleating, but this is also minor. Some typical brown discolouration to cotton waist band and to pale blue silk lining.