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Lot Essay
The present embroidered painting is highly unusual as different weaving techniques were employed including Peking knots and the use of precious sea pearls as embellishments.
The motif of Daoist immortals offering birthday felicitations to Xiwangmu has always been a popular subject matter on embroidery throughout time. A large kesi tapestry dated to the Qing dynasty with similar subject matter is in the Liaoning Provincial Museum Collection and was included in the exhibition, Heaven's Embroidered Cloths, One Thousand Years of Chinese Textiles, Urban Council of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1995, Catalogue no. 119. Another silk tapestry, also depicting the birthday scene of Xiwangmu but with only female immortals, is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei illustrated in Masterpieces of Chinese Silk Tapestry and Embroidery in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1971, pl. 45.
The motif of Daoist immortals offering birthday felicitations to Xiwangmu has always been a popular subject matter on embroidery throughout time. A large kesi tapestry dated to the Qing dynasty with similar subject matter is in the Liaoning Provincial Museum Collection and was included in the exhibition, Heaven's Embroidered Cloths, One Thousand Years of Chinese Textiles, Urban Council of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1995, Catalogue no. 119. Another silk tapestry, also depicting the birthday scene of Xiwangmu but with only female immortals, is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei illustrated in Masterpieces of Chinese Silk Tapestry and Embroidery in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1971, pl. 45.