Unknown Maker, Chinese

These red woven silk chair covers would have draped over yoke-back armchairs, making them both more comfortable and symbolically significant. Each cover is organized into four registers, decorated with different symbols on a background of clouds, bats, and fretwork. At top two cranes fly beside the sacred mountain

emerging from the waters. This image appears reversed because it would have been draped over the back of the chair. The next register features a four-clawed mang

dragon holding a flaming pearl-a symbol of the world, knowledge, and power-in its coil and floating over mountains and waves. This central image is situated at

the height of a sitter’s chest. The seat is decorated with a lotus medallion, an appropriate symbol in this position as the lotus form was often used as a seat for Buddhas or deities. The final panel, which would have hung at leg height, shows the sacred tower over the waters flanked by two dragon-horses.