An article surveying archaeological finds of textiles in Russian and Soviet territory, from Scythian graves on the Black Sea to Han-period burials at Noin Ula (Mongolia), Oglakty and Pazirik (Siberia), and later T'ang, Sung and Byzantine imports. It describes Chinese embroidered silks and woolen embroideries with tiger-skin motifs, argues for Chinese use of wool in Han times, and discusses how steppe nomads used imported fabrics and felt. Illustrated with photographs of Hermitage fragments; extensive footnotes cite Russian and Western scholarship.

Schuyler Cammann traces the development of Chinese mandarin squares (rank badges) from their introduction under the Ming court in 1393 to the fall of the Manchu dynasty in 1912. He identifies previously unrecognized Ming squares in American museum collections, such as tapestry-woven (k'o-ssu) pieces at Cooper Union that had been labeled Japanese. He then contrasts Ming squares with early Ch'ing squares and surveys later Ch'ing changes in form, border, ornament, and technique. Ancestral portraits and Chinese encyclopedias are used as dating evidence, and the article is illustrated with 15 figures and a frontispiece.