Antique Chinese textile, rank badge, mandarin square, with applique silver pheasant, 5th civil rank, and applique red sun, hand embroidered silk and gold and silver threads, fine petit point with an average of 33 stitches per linear inch, an amazing average of over 1000 stiches per square inch, the clouds have been removed from the field of the badge and placed into the border, the large realistic peach trees and narcissa flowers curving inward, this represents the beginning of the design of rank badges moving into a more circular form, bright and cheery aniline dyes would indicate a date after 1860, ca. 1870's?, the field is completely filled with small wan designs, woven in one piece for a male wearer, the entire field is petit point includeing the deep water design in an unusual form of counted stitch, this is a more expensive technique than couching, and the quality seems higher than normally affordable for a 5th rank servant, probably commissioned by a man of somewhat financial measns, but with eyes on higher asperations, so that when he accomplished the higher rank, he could replace just the bird, and not the entire badge, general good condition with signs of use, the approximate size is 9.5 inches x 9 inches, #jr-14, shipping is extra