A GOLD-FILIGREE 'RUYI' HAIR ORNAMENT QING DYNASTY, 18TH – 19TH CENTURY

finely executed in gold filigree, the ruyi-shaped head decorated in delicate filigree with thin twisted wired inset to the centre with a pearl, elegantly adorned with six delicate twisted gold wires radiating from the head, fixed to the top with a foliate scroll inset with a seed pearl and a wan symbol, flanked by four archaistic scrolling dragons

Collection of Dr. Carl Kempe.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 11th April 2008, lot 2301.

Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C., 1954-55, cat. no. 65.
Chinese Gold, Silver and Porcelain: The Kempe Collection, Asia House Gallery, New York, 1971, cat. no. 27.

Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1953, cat.no. 65.
A Botanical Excursion in the Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1965, pl. 24a.
Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Ulricehamn, 1999, pl. 58.

The present ornament, decorated with auspicious symbols, was worn by court ladies as decoration for their hair.  There were strict rules governing the use of jewellery and ornaments during the Qing dynasty and court ladies were restricted on the use of decorative items such as hair-slides, hairpins, liusu hair ornaments and other jewellery. For more information on the use of gold ornaments during the Qing dynasty see Yang Boda, 'Ancient Chinese Cultures of Gold Jewellery and Ornamentation', Arts of Asia, vol. 38, no. 2, March-April 2008, pp. 88-113.  See a similar hair ornament with twisted gold wires radiating from the centre, decorated with two wan symbols and archaistic scrolling designs, illustrated in Celestial Creations: Art of the Chinese Goldsmith, The Cheng Xun Tang Collection, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007, pl.H03.  Compare also another hair ornament similarly decorated with two ruyi heads in delicate filigree work, illustrated in Gems of Beijing Cultural Relics, Gold and Silverwares, Beijing, 2004, pl. 296. The scrolling dragons and foliate scroll on the present ornament may have once been covered with kingfisher feathers.  See a related gold hair ornament in op.cit., p.111.