Chinese Imperial Family Qing Dynasty five-claw gold dragon silk rank badge. The exquisitely embroidered rank badge or dragon insignia roundel, was designed to be worn on a surcoat or robe during the Qing period, 1644-1912. Fine and intricately hand embroidered with gold wrapped thread counted stitch, depicting a gold couched front facing 5-claw dragon on a black silk ground. Fine polychrome silk embroidered clouds, frothy waves, sea motifs and buddhist auspicious symbols. The Chinese embroidered rank badge is from an imperial family member's surcoat or robe. Only men in the extended imperial family through prince of fourth rank were permitted to wear the dragon insignia. No one below the rank of second-degree prince could wear robes depicting dragons with five claws. Embroidery has been protected by being framed under glass. Silk fabric and gold embroidered thread is in good condition. Measures 13 in. diameter including the thin black circular frame. Estate of Hall - Jordan. From the estate of Dr. J. Ward Hall, dentist to the Chinese Imperial Family, personal dentist to the emperor. The early antique textile will include photos of the interior of Dr. Hall's Shanghai residence taken in the 1880's showing many of the Chinese textiles on the wall. Qing Imperial rank badge will also include original Jordan family note cards, with the Jordan family crest.

Dr. James Ward Hall (1849-1908) graduated Missouri Dental College in 1876 and was named professor of surgical and operative dentistry in 1878 - World's Columbia Dental Congress. At the solicitation of a friend, he moved to Shanghai, China in 1878 and began a lucrative dental practice becoming dentist to the Emperor of China. Dr. J. Ward Hall resided in Shanghai for the rest of his life, some thirty years. And in the ensuing years amassed an impressive collection of Chinese antiques, some possibly gifts from the Chinese Imperial Emperor Guangxu (1875-1908). Dr. Hall beautifully displayed the collection throughout his Shanghai residence.

In a May 16, 1907 letter Thomas Barbour of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University recounts being introduced to the American dentist Dr. Ward Hall in his 1913 book Letters Written While On A Collecting Trip in the East Indies. He describes Dr. Ward Hall as "a collector of old Chinese things and I never saw or imagined anything so filled to overflowing with attractive things as his house is. He has in one room a screen over fifteen feet high of dark wood heavily and magnificently carved with dragons, birds, clouds, bats, flowers, etc. and panels of mosaic silk, which looked like the finest embroidery. This came from an old emperor's palace. Barbour goes on to describe the collection..... of old China and porcelain, bronze incense burners and oil vessels.....He has been years and years collecting them."

After his death in 1908, Dr. Hall's sister Mrs. Clifford Hall Jordan of Chicago inherited much of the collection. She and her husband Scott Jordan, president of C. H. Jordan & Co., Funeral Directors, (a firm established in 1854 that handled arrangements when Abraham Lincoln's body was brought to Chicago in 1865), displayed the collection of fine Chinese antiquities in their gilded age stone mansion in the Edgewater neighborhood on Lake Michigan in Chicago. The collection was passed down to their only child, W. Beaumont Jordan (1898-1973) and then on to his family descendants. Included with the embroidery are photos taken in the late 1880's showing the interior of Dr. J. Ward Hall's Shanghai home and collection of Chinese textiles. Also included will be original circa 1920's stationery cards from the Jordan estate bearing the Jordan family Scottish heraldic coat of arms and family crest embossed in rich color. Hall and Jordan family members emigrated from England to Massachusetts in the 1600's, eventually settling in Piqua, Ohio.

Additional photos showing the interior of Dr. J. Ward Hall's home in Shanghai along with in depth background history are available and posted on the Myers Auction Gallery website catalog for this item.