Women’s coat

China, 1st half of 20th century

woven, embroidered, silk; copper buttons

height: 97 cm, width: 118 cm

Donated by Ilona Zboray’s daughter

Chinese Collection, accession number: HFM_2023.46.1.

Closing on the right side with three copper buttons and textile lop button holes, blue woven T-shape silk, jacket with Chinese pattern, round neckline, with straight, loose-fitting sleeves. A two and a half cm wide ochre embroidered trim with light blue, dark blue, raw-colored, purple, green and brown silk thread embroidery ornaments the sleeve ends; dense embroidery on the front with a single floral motif on the back.

Our museum preserves more than a hundred works of art collected by Ernő Zboray who spent several decades in Java between the 1920s and ‘40s. A group of these objects forms the most significant part of our Southeast Asian Collection — the wayang golek or three-dimensional wooden puppet collection consisting of 80 pieces. This collection – as well as Ernő Zboray himself – has been given special dedication in our various past exhibitions (e.g., Tradition and change, 2013-2014). Memoires of his sister Ilona Zboray were included in our exhibition titled Trance|Dance|Bali in 2020. From their bequest, and from the private collection of their descendants, three further objects were acquired by the Hopp Museum recently.