Colour Our Collections: Cuff, fragment of eunuch’s robe, c.1909-1911

Download your free copy of our colouring sheet for the Year of the Dragon!

Cuff, fragment of eunuch’s robe, Chinese, c.1909-1911. Accession number: T.12262.2

The 10th February 2024 marks the start of the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar Calendar. We thought it might be nice to have a new colouring sheet to celebrate.

The piece chosen for our Year of the Dragon colouring sheet is a part of a cuff from a fragment of a eunuch’s robe, originating from China and dating back to around c.1909-1911. This date range places it right at the end of the Qing dynasty, a Manchu dynasty which rose to power in 1644 and was overthrown in 1911- making them the last imperial dynasty to rule China. The textile fragment was chosen for the beautiful dragon at the centre.

I found this piece quite difficult to trace because many of the finer details were hard to make out due to their lighter colours, with some details being of a very similar colour to the base/ main orange colour of the piece. I selected only part of the cuff to trace, as I knew I would not be able to trace all of it.

This is how the colouring sheet turned out. You can download a pdf copy of it below.

The dragons of Europe were often depicted as destructive creatures, capable of breathing fire or venom. They still frequently appear as greedy and sometimes outright evil antagonists in various tales and you may hear some employ the phrases ‘dragon breath’ or ‘wake the dragon’, which carry negative connotations (albeit often in a joking manner) in the English language. The long or lung of China, in contrast, tended to be portrayed as more benevolent beings whilst still being viewed as extremely powerful creatures. The Shen long of Chinese mythology were said to be responsible for bringing rain to mankind whilst others, the tian long, rubbed shoulders with gods. And the shen long and tian long weren’t the only ‘dragons’ of Chinese mythology. Depictions of what we refer to as a ‘dragon’ in English stretch back a long time in China; some archaeological finds depicting dragons have been dated back to the late Neolithic period. So in a way, our dragon is quite a young one!

Whatever your plans for Lunar New Year are, whether you celebrate it or not, I hope the Year of the Dragon turns out to be a fantastic year for you!

– Steph

You can download your free copy of our colouring sheet as a pdf. file below:

colour-our-collections-cuff-fragment-of-eunuchs-robe-t.12262.2Download

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