Badge with Five-Clawed Dragon Surrounded by Plum Blossoms

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Badges with festival symbols were not used at the Chinese court after 1644, and those showing plum blossoms are especially rare. Plum-blossom badges were appropriate for the winter solstice, a festival of the eleventh lunar month. Both the form of the dragon's head seen here and the embroidery technique have close parallels in the finds from Dingling, the tomb of the Ming-dynasty Wanli emperor (r. 1573—1620).

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art