<div class="description">
This magnificent pair of boots, made of finely woven silk tapestry (<em>kesi</em>), features two phoenixes in flight chasing a flaming pearl. Although the bright colors of the fabric have become muted from being buried in a tomb and the gold threads are partly disintegrated, the once lavish use of gold and the Chinese-inspired phoenix motif suggest that the boots were made for a member of the Liao imperial family, probably a woman. At the time the boots were made in the Khitan-occupied territory in northern China, footbinding was introduced among upper-class women in southern China. The high value the Khitan people accorded to boots relates to their mobile, seminomadic lifestyle.</div>
<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://clevelandart.org/art/1993.158">https://clevelandart.org/art/1993.158</a>