This silk embroidery from China is elaborately embroidered and most likely came from Sichuan province c. 1930. I found a similar one in my book Chinese Silk: A Cultural History by Shelagh Vainker on pages 200-201 of this book. I have a personal story about this piece that warrants telling. First, a close-up:
I found this piece at an outdoor antique market across the bay from San Francisco. What I wanted to purchase was actually a beautiful tobacco brown wool challis with red and yellow and blue accent colors. It was one of those pieces that grabs your attention. It was so finely done that it had to be an older piece and probably English from the mid to late 19th c. On the back was the Chinese silk, but this was not what I had wanted to buy, but it seemed pretty. When I had a chance to look at these pieces, I realized the wool challis had actually been used as the lining or backing for the silk embroidery. Embroidered on the wool was a long length of Chinese writing that seemed intriguing.
I recently had a Chinese friend from Taiwan interpret the writing for me. He said the red embroidered silk was most likely a gift for someone, perhaps a wedding present, and these were names embroidered on the backing fabric (the wool challis). He also guessed the names were so finely embroidered that it was most likely done in China and not the US.
was the embroidery done in silk or wool?
The embroidery was done in silk and metallic threads.