2-738-676 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Prince's trousers and lining, 700s. This coat and pants are each part of a set of garments that originally included an outer pair of pants and silk boots made from the same material as the coat. The cut of the coat suggests that the set belonged to a little boy. Such rich garments would have been worn by a member of the imperial family or the nobility. The fabrics comprising this outfit were woven in widely distant parts of Asia. The silk of the coat, with ducks in pearl roundels, was woven in Sogdiana. The white silk of the pants, ornamented with flowers and birds, is Chinese. Both garments are lined with a Chinese silk woven with a radial floral pattern that was common during the 8th century. The coat and pants were made at a time when Tibetan power extended to parts of China, eastern Central Asia, and the trade routes to Sogdiana.