Estate Sale - Vintage Chinese and Japanese Embroidery

Good afternoon everyone! I'm sure my readers along the Gulf Coast are enjoying some lovely fall weather with temperatures in the 60s today. Weather like this always reminds me of two places, Walnut, CA and Egham, Surrey. Hopefully we can keep these temperatures until the winter instead of going back to summer temperatures, but you never know what you'll get living in the south.

Last Saturday my sister and I went downtown to Room 1927 beside the Saenger Theatre for estate sales from the Magee Farm and a residence in New York.

There were quite a lot of items ranging from books, glassware, ceramics, furniture, silver, and paintings at the sale. While wandering the room, my eyes kept going back to several framed embroidery designs. One was a beautiful 1830s-40s embroidery on silk, but the condition of the piece was in such disrepair that I knew I'd pay quite a lot to have it conserved so I didn't pick it up.

Here is what that piece looked like:

The entire piece was falling out of its frame and had damage to the middle part of the design. The faces of the woman and child were torn. I can only hope that someone saw this piece and decided to purchase it for the chance to have it conserved.

It is quite a beautiful piece despite the damage and if it was from the Magee Farm, it is a rare example of embroidery because our southern temperatures and weather are not kind towards textiles if proper techniques are not taken to keep the piece in good condition.

The other embroidered pieces that I had my eye on were frame Asian designs.

First off, I found this lovely Chinese embroidered silk mat.

 

I have tried to do some research on this embroidery design, but all I've found so far are designs with a similar floral border and that it might be a place mat. I've found nothing about a date for the piece. I'm thinking perhaps mid-20th century.......makes me wish I knew someone who was an expert in Asian embroidered textiles.

The other framed piece that I bought was this gorgeous Japanese (or Chinese) landscape embroidered on silk in blacks, browns, and silvers.

I love the muted palette of colors in this design. It helps to invoke the bareness of the landscape. I was surprised when looking closer at this design to see that a lot of the stitches in this piece were quite simple ones. The beauty of this piece is definitely due to its simplicity.

I plan on sending a picture of this design to a professor of mine from college who teaches Asian history and knows several Asian languages. I'm hoping he can translate the characters and chop mark on this design and see if we can come up with an artist.

Until next time ^____^