A rare silk court 'lion' rank badge, buzi17th century Made for a second rank military official, the badge colourfully embroidered with a lion seated on its haunches with its bushy tail flicked upwards and head turned to the left, surrounded by large clusters of lozenge-shaped clouds, prism-like rocks and rolling waves, all worked in vibrant shades of green, orange, blue, yellow and white couched silk floss and couched gold threads on a twisted blue silk thread ground.39cm (15 3/8) wide x 37cm (14 1/2in) long.注脚十七世紀 獅子紋刺繡補子Provenance: Palazzo Corsini, FlorenceThe Plum Blossom Gallery, Hong Kong, November 1994A European private collection來源：意大利佛羅倫薩，Palazzo Corsini香港古董商，萬玉堂，1994年11月歐洲私人收藏During the 17th century, under pressure from the Manchu to institute their own style of court attire, the shape of the buzi or insignia badges, became more exactingly square. Second rank military officers were assigned square lion badges, such as the present example, which were applied to the chest and back of their official robes. The bold design of the present badge, with large lozenge-shaped clouds prism-like rock, reflects the aesthetic developments of the later phases of the Ming dynasty.The present badge was part of a large group comprising over thirty similar silk badges, mainly representing lions and silver pheasants, once sewn into a large curtain or canopy from the collection of the Palazzo Corsini, Florence. It has been suggested that these badges were likely assembled in Tibet to form a large hanging or a canopy. For published examples of similar Ming badges from the Corsini group see C.Hall, et al., One Thousand Years of Chinese Textiles, Hong Kong, 1995, pp.66-68; see also J.Vollmer, Silks For Thrones and Altars: Chinese Costumes and Textiles from the Liao Through the Qing Dynasty, Paris, 2003, no.12, pp.36-37. See also C.Hall, Power Dressing: Textiles for Rulers and Priests from the Chris Hall Collection, Singapore, 2006, p.240, no.69.A nearly identical 'lion' silk badge, Ming dynasty, from the Corsini collection, was sold at Christie's New York, 19 March 2008, lot 19.