696 Floral Embroidered Black Silk Tiger Child's Hat

#696 Black Silk Floral Embroidered Tiger Hat. Very fine silk embroidered flowers over treated paper cutouts including lotus for purity and nobility and peony for wealth and worldly glory. The tiger hat protects the young from evils spirits and imbues them with the strength and courage of the tiger. On the tiger’s forehead is the Chinese character “wang” for “king” of the animals. The silk colors are bright on this hat especailly on the back wind flap; the only major problem is a lack of a mouth; Han Chinese; Blue silk lining; c 1900; 17” circumference

704 Smiling Double Tiger Silk Chinese Child's Hat

#704 Smiling Double Tiger Silk Chinese Child’s Hat. Traditional Double Tiger hat to scare away evil spirits and to provide courage. The bottom tiger is of black silk with extremely fine satin-stitched silk embroidery of flowers and butterflies for happiness surrounded with the tiniest twisted couched silk tread; facial features are excellent, but the “wang” sign for “king” of the animals is missing parts; The top dragon is an orange brocade also with excellent undamaged features; stripes of attached silk braids; Wang sign on forehead  cotton and silk lining are fairly clean; general excellent condition; early 20^th century; 19” circumference   

711 Qing Dynasty Yellow Silk Tiger Child's Vest & Hat

#711 Yellow Silk Tiger Child’s Vest and Tiger Hat Set. An uncommon Qing Dynasty vest and hat set made of yellow silk brocade. The vest has the dorsal image of the tiger created with an applicated head with attached features and sprawled slightly padded back legs; all features are highlighted with ink designs; on the back of the vest are the “Five Poisons” (snake/lizard, centipede, scorpion, toad, and spider) also to ward off evil while surrounding the Taoist symbol of a double gourd containing all magical medicines. The images are very finely embroidered in a fill chain-stitch with Peking knot highlights. The trim is primarily wrapped cording; the left shoulder opening is closed with two more modern snaps; good commercial brown lining; very good condition; 12”wide x 10” long; c 1910

The accompanying Chinese Child’s hat is a Tiger hat with a black silk face and a yellow silk body again with ink drawn stripes and other decorative features. There is a bit of blue silk fringe edging the face and black silk for eyelashes; all facial features in good condition; 20” circumference;

This set was collected in Hong Kong or Singapore in the 1980s.