Author: © Dr Sheena Burnell 2009
“The halcyon kingfisher nests in the South Sea realm
Cock and hen in groves of jewelled trees
How could they know that the thoughts of lovely women
Covet them as highly as gold?”
Ch’en Tzu-ang (661-702) Translation by Paul W. Kroll
Since the beginning of civilization humans have sought to adorn and decorate themselves, and the Chinese were no exception.
Inspired by the beauty and variety of the birds and animals around them they sought from the very earliest times to emulate these seemingly perfect creatures by first adorning themselves with their pelts and plumes then with increasing sophistication to embellish the clothes and accessories they wore, finally establishing by the time of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) a highly-stylised and visible social and political hierarchy based upon their perception of the intrinsic characteristics of these creatures and famously epitomised by the bird and animal rank badges of that era.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, headgear and hairstyles evolved in the most spectacular manner, and the crests and head plumes of the birds the Chinese encountered provided inspiration over the centuries for an astonishing variety of hats, crowns, tiaras, hairstyles and hair ornaments.
Drawn by their iridescent beauty, many races and peoples have used feathers as adornment or accessory, and the earliest humans, including the Chinese, probably initially sought to decorate themselves using entire feathers from the bird; we are all familiar with pictures of races right up until modern times such as the Papua New Guinean tribes, which continue to do so.
It is only the Chinese however who evolved beyond this to discover a way to incorporate the colour and sheen, which they so admired in the beautiful feathers, into something far more wearable, sophisticated and elegant (Hartman, R., 1980, p80).The most highly-prized of all as seen in the short poem above were the flashing iridescent turquoise and blue feathers of the little halcyon, or kingfisher bird, at that stage plentiful in China and in fact, in most of Asia. As can be deduced from the date of Ch’en Tzu-ang’s poem, the use of kingfisher feathers appears well-established at that stage and they were clearly already highly valued as much, if not more, than gold.
Excavations of T’ang dynasty (A.D. 618-906) tombs have revealed tiny kingfisher jewellery pieces which were probably used more in the manner of gems or decorative items, and there are descriptions of a dying king from the Han dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220) detailing his private chamber in which there were “kingfisher hangings on jasper hooks” and “bedspreads of kingfisher all seeded with pearls” (Hartman, R., 1980, p76), apparently from the manner of their description not necessarily unusual objects for the time.
Beverley Jackson in her extensive book on the subject of the use of kingfisher feathers recounts a marvellous episode where the indefatigable English author Oswald Sitwell is musing upon the glory that was Angkor Wat, and concludes, somewhat amazed, that such glories in a country with few resources such as ancient Cambodia must have been provided by one thing only – the enormous trade in kingfisher feathers for the insatiable Chinese market (Jackson, B., 2001, p5). This rather startling observation provides some insight into the ubiquity and popularity of the exquisite objects, and certainly no museum collection of Chinese dress is without at least one or two examples of this art.
Indeed kingfisher feathers were employed with dazzling effect in a large variety of items for personal adornment including not only hair ornaments but crowns, wedding head-dresses, bracelets, nail guards, brooches, earrings, pendants and occasionally even larger objets d’art such as screens and tableaux. Although it is evident that kingfisher decorative items had existed for many centuries, they were at their most spectacular when used to decorate women’s hair ornaments, and this was an art form whose artistic culmination was reached in the Qing dynasty when the Manchus took control of Imperial power.
Although they sought to enforce Manchu customs and language from the beginning of their reign in 1644, by the time of the Qianlong Emperor (c 1736-95) the ruling Manchus were increasingly concerned that not only were the ethnic Han Chinese continuing with their own style of dress, they were also influencing Manchu style. Subsequently in 1759, the “Illustrated Precedents for the Ritual Paraphernalia of the Court” (Huangchao liqi tushi) was published, ostensibly in an effort to unify the country but in reality of course to control and impose their rule upon the Han (Garrett, V., p10)
Under this system, clothing was divided into official and non-official wear, seasonal wear, styles, and colours, all based on rank. As women held no official role in the court (other than occasionally acting as regent, most notably the Empress Dowager Cixi) their rank was determined by their husband’s4. Subsequently their dress, hairstyles and even their hair ornaments were very formalised so combined with the immense wealth and leisure time these women enjoyed, the art of dressing the hair and ornamenting the subsequent confection reached new heights – literally in the case of Manchu women, who sought to develop increasingly towering styles. Combined with her extra physical height, floor-length robes and 4-6” platform shoes, the Manchu court female was an imposing figure, and made the shorter-statured, bound-footed Han Chinese woman look girlish and doll-like by comparison (Johnson, B., 2001, p61).
Naturally in this era no woman of rank or wealth, Manchu or Han, did her own hair; in the case of the Manchu woman if a hat was not being worn for an official occasion, the preparations for this coiffure could take some hours, especially with the higher ranking princesses and empresses of the court (Princess Der Ling, 1911, p67).
In order to keep the elaborate structure in place, a gel-like substance was used called pao bua, derived from soaking fine wood-shavings from a special tree in hot water until a sticky jelly was obtained. This was then combed through the hair which was then styled. In the case of Han women, unless their husband was a mandarin at the Imperial court this style would have simply been in the fashion of the day, often a simple coil or two braids at the nape of the neck; very few ornaments were used, often just fresh flowers or a couple of small pins. In the case of Manchu women however it was a much more complex process and the gelled and combed hair was then wound around elaborate frames made of horsehair; according to the dictates of her rank a number of different types of styling followed, the best known of which is the liangpa tou “two handle ends” seen in many portraits of the day including the Empress Dowager. Against this towering backdrop (further augmented in the late Qing by a similar structure made of black satin), numerous beautiful objects such as sheng (combs), zan (hair slides), chai (hair pins) and buyao (hair ornaments) could be displayed, along with fresh and artificial flowers, pompoms and tassels (Garrett, V, 1997, p76, Hartman, R, 1980, p90, Jackson, B, 2001, pp61-63)
The hair ornaments themselves could be functional or decorative, serving to either help hold the hair in place in the case of the very large hair slide known as bianfang which essentially supported the two side buns and was often decorated on one side with a large hanging tassel which swung as the wearer walked, or in the case of smaller pins and ornaments be displayed entirely for their beauty and workmanship. The variety of materials used along with the kingfisher feathers included gold or silver (depending on wealth and rank), pearls, precious and semi-precious stones notably unfaceted rubies and sapphires, tourmalines and carnelians, the highly-valued Peking glass, coral, jade or jadeite, mother of pearl, and sometimes in the case of dangling hair ornaments (liusu) brass figures such as fish.
The ornaments themselves came in a huge variety of shapes including birds, animals, insects, flowers and other plant life including fruit and gourds, children or small figures, auspicious symbols including the shou “long life” and shuangxi “double happiness” symbols, shapes such as the Eight Precious Objects and even in the case of larger crowns and tiaras, small still life scenes depicting court life or famous scenes, however the most popular themes were butterflies, bats, dragonflies, grasshoppers, fish and gourds (Garrett, V, p19-35, Hartman, R, 1980, pp76-80, Jackson, B, 2001, p97)
The reason for these choices was several-fold, for apart from their intrinsic charm and beauty these motifs held another type of significance. The Chinese language is rich with homophones, words that sound like one another but have different meanings, with the result that saying one thing can evoke something entirely different, sometimes humorous or for the superstitious Chinese, auspicious. Well-known examples of this include “happiness” fu and “bat” bianfu, “prosperity” yu and “fish” yu, or interesting combinations such as “butterfly” and “gourd” guadie mianmian creating a rebus meaning “offspring for eternity”. Other motifs had their own inherent meanings, such as peaches and pomegranates (fertility), paired ducks (marital happiness) cranes (immortality) and lingzhi mushrooms (longevity). Because of this there resulted a strong visual vocabulary, almost a type of ‘visual shorthand’, so that the use of certain animals, insects or symbols would result in a piece that was not only able to be admired for its exquisite workmanship, but also had great meaning for the wearer and all those around her and usually connoted her wish for a happy and fulfilled life, preferably with many sons (Hartman, R, 1980, pp76-80).
It can be understood in the light of this that the Chinese of this era wore jewellery for different reasons to us today, usually more for aesthetic reasons or the enjoyment of the wearer, or as a practical means of storing their assets, rather than actually showing off wealth. In addition, the choice of background metal was again stipulated by formal decree, and gold was generally only permitted for ornaments for the ladies of the Imperial court or the very wealthy. Whatever the metal it was wrought into an astonishing variety of shapes, often three-dimensional, and was frequently worked as filigree; quite frequently design elements such as stems, branches and leaves were fashioned with a springy copper ball so that they trembled when the wearer moved or walked, adding to the charm and beauty of the final picture (Jackson, B, 2001, p85).
While it is certainly acknowledged that the art of working with kingfisher feathers is one of China’s traditional handcrafts (Yuan, H, 2006, p97), the actual construction of the pieces themselves has been the subject of some conjecture. What is known is that thin sheets of gold or silver were formed into the desired shape with the appropriate ridges in the design being fashioned with a tiny hammer and a surrounding lip then being attached, much in the fashion of cloisonné (Hartmann, R, 1980, p76).
The pieces of feather were then painstakingly laid in place and then affixed with adhesive or glue. The method of fixation may have been variable depending on the way the piece was constructed and has been variously described as either covering the entire finished product with a glue-like substance (Jackson, B, 2001, p53-54) or affixing each piece individually, as in a fascinating eye-witness account of the time describing how individual feather filaments were dredged through the glue before being laid flat upon the metal surface (Jackson, B, 2001, p50)
What is agreed upon is that the glue must be invisible, and not discolour the feathers at all. The exact composition of this glue is not precisely known although it was most likely a combination of adhesives derived from both animal (hide) and plant (seaweed) sources which would have been plentiful and readily available at the time.
The feathers themselves also appear to have been used in a couple of different ways to create the jewellery. One technique, by far the slowest and most painstaking and most likely that used for the Court jewellery, involved the method described above whereby individual feather filaments were laboriously attached side by side until the piece was covered and a solid lacquer-like effect was achieved. Alternately and possibly as demand for these objects grew, a different and no doubt slightly more efficient technique was employed with larger sections of actual feather being attached. This may also have been used for larger pieces.
What is certain is that with the inevitable intermingling of the ruling Manchus and the Han Chinese women, demand for these pieces grew as every women in China wanted one of these covetable and fashionable items. In addition the increasing influx of Western visitors combined with the aesthetic of the Art Nouveau movement in Europe made these pieces desirous beyond Chinese shores, and demand eventually outstripped supply with the eventual hunting to extinction of the little kingfisher bird in China.
Fashions then changed and with the advent of the sweeping social changes that were to befall China, this art, like so many others, was lost.
The last factory producing these items commercially closed in Canton in 1930 (Hartman, R, 1980, p78), and although reproduction items are still produced in China and the Philippines today, the items are generally inferior and do not use genuine kingfisher feathers but rather dyed feathers from other birds (Jackson, B, 2001, p53).
What is so remarkable then is that the appreciation of, and delight in these beautiful little objects endures in both China and the West, and even in such a changed world as ours the fact that we can still admire and desire these little gems, and the very fact that so many pieces of this extraordinary art form still survive today is a tribute to both the skill of the artisans and the timeless beauty of the pieces themselves.
Author: © Sheena Burnell 2009
Dr Sheena Burnell an anaesthetist currently living in Shanghai, began collecting Chinese objets d’art and Japanese ukiyoe (wood block prints) in the 1980s. Her shift in focus to Chinese dress accessories dates from her first visits to Hong Kong in the early ‘90s. This led to an expanding interest in women’s and children’s dress accessories in general and more recently kingfisher hair ornaments. Sheena appeared on the ABC program ‘Collectors’ in 2007 with her collection of bound feet shoes and related objects.
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I possess several of these fine creations; one that is in exquisite condition and was made into a pin, to pin onto clothing, by Laural Birch. I would like to know the value of such a pin.