Chasuble mid-18th century China, for European, possibly Spanish, market This deep red satin chasuble was embroidered in China. Its slender, A-line shape was common in chasubles of eighteenth-century Spain, where it may have been used.¹ The focal point of the embroidered design is the roundel with a double-headed eagle at the center of the vestments front and back. Although the double-headed eagle surmounted by a crown was a symbol of the Habsburg monarchy, here it is purely decorative and tinged with an auspicious Chinese flavor.² Instead of grasping arrows in their talons, as they would in the Habsburg motif, the birds dangle flowering and leafy stems from their beaks. In Chinese textiles auspicious birds frequently hold symbolic flora: a rank badge in the Metropolitan Museums collection features a crane that grips a branch bearing both a peach and a peach blossom.³ The front and back of the chasuble are each divided into three vertical sections, separated by narrow embroidered flor