Headdress for a bridal attendant

Malacca or Singapore, late 19th or early 20th century
Silk velvet worked with cut steel beads and melon-form metal beads, metal purl, sequins, metal thread (couched and attached with buttonhole stitch), cordonnet; fringe of netted or plaited glass beads, attached pompoms; needle-woven edges
National Museum of Singapore [G-0221-B]

Elaborate headdresses were part of the ceremonial outfits of young girls in Malacca and Singapore. Some had an additional pointed crown that differentiated them from the baxian (Eight Immortals) headdresses worn elsewhere in the archipelago.

The dominant images include Xiwangmu, Queen mother of the West, on the beaded piece; and a bird, perhaps a phoenix or crane, on the gold embroidered headdress. The maker has ingenuously stitched overlapping sequins to suggest ruffled feathers and flower petals.