Gilt Winter Hat Box

No self-respecting man in Qing-dynasty China would leave the house without some kind of hat. In fact, headgear was so central to social status that even the containers used to store one's hat were beautifully constructed.

Belonging to an individual of rank, this late 19th-century round box was originally the lower portion of a stacked double hat box. This half would have been used to store the official's winter hat, worn from the eighth month of the Chinese calendar thru the second. Such hats were constructed of decadent silks, trimmed with satin or fur, and topped with a beaded finial denoting rank. This particular hat box is finished with lacquered hide and painted with gilt scrollwork, dragons, and scholars' objects. The box interior is lined with blue fabric and includes a central hat support decorated with a coin motif.