Boy's scholar's hat of purple silk with crown formed by several embroidered panels joined together with strings of beads. The front is decorated with embroidered silk petals in the shape of a lotus flower, and a gilt metal lion mask roundel with a bell attached at centre. The crown has two padded white silk egrets from which with hang silk tassels, and two applied flowers on back, mounted with a top crown of purple silk. Behind the brim is a strip of purple silk embroidered with birds and floral sprays, attached with a flap of butterfly embroidery. The hat is lined with cotton.
Part of The Louise Tythacott Collection . The Louise Tythacott Collection was compiled as the result of intensive fieldwork over several years in South China and Hong Kong. Ms Tythacott is a Chinese-speaking anthropologist and a museum curator, and was Curator of Ethnography at Liverpool Museum, who was particularly fortunate in developing contacts during the course of her work. Ms Tythacott has also made collections for the Museum of Mankind.
