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Dragons in the Drawing Room: Chinese Embroideries in British Homes, 1860–1949

Abstract Chinese embroideries have featured in British domestic interiors since at least the seventeenth century. However, Western imperial interests in China during the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries created a particular set of meanings around Chinese material culture, and especially a colonial form of nostalgia for pre-nineteenth-century China, with its emperors and 'exotic' court etiquette. This article examines the use of Chinese satin-stitch embroideries in British homes between 1860 and 1949, and explores how a range of British identities was constructed through the ownership, manipulation and display of these luxury Chinese textiles.