A LARGE RECTANGULAR KESI PANEL

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF EDGAR AND HEDWIG WORCH

Details

A LARGE RECTANGULAR KESI PANEL
17TH/18TH CENTURY

The main field woven with a large landscape panel depicting various immortals, scholars and attendants within a celestial mountain setting, including figures on a pavilion terrace beneath a group of musicians in clouds, figures in boats or engaged in conversation, picked out in bright colors and reserved on a gold ground, enclosed by a wide border of 'precious objects', bordered by a semi-circular dragon panel at the top, the dragon enclosing a square panel with four characters in seal script, long zhang feng gao, all above a band of animals including a tiger, a leopard, an elephant, a dragon and a qilin at the bottom, some repairs and alterations, now padded as a quilt--126 x 70¾in. (320 x 177.8cm.)

Lot Essay

This panel was probably originally displayed as a large hanging scroll. An example woven in a similar style, formerly in the collection of the emperor Qianlong and bearing his Imperial seals, was included in the exhibiton, Imperial Robes and Textiles of the Chinese Court, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, April 13-June 15, 1943, illustrated by Alan Priest in the Catalogue, no. 181, pl. XX (detail). Compare other related examples depicting similar scenes, illustrated by Wang-go Weng and Yang Boda, The Palace Museum: Peking, Treasures of the Forbidden City, New York, 1982, pp. 290, 291, no. 198; and another illustrated by Valery M. Garrett, Chinese Clothing, Hong Kong, 1994, p. 195, no. 88