Printed from Woolley & Wallis

Description

A VERY LARGE AND IMPRESSIVE JAPANESE EMBROIDERY (NIHON SHISHU)
MEIJI ERA, 19TH/20TH CENTURY

The silk panel expertly embroidered with a large peacock and peahen on rockwork, the majestic birds surrounded by pine branches and lush flowers including trailing wisteria and white azaleas; with a river beyond and the sky woven in gold threads; some details rendered in the fura-nu (radiating silk threads), koma-nui (couching stitch), sashi-nui (long and short stitches), suga-nui (stem stitching) and matsu-nui (staggered diagonals) techniques; framed by a silk mount embellished with peonies, mon and other brocade patterns, approx. 314cm x 132cm.

Provenance: formerly in an American collection, originally acquired in the East in the 1980s.

Cf. C Pollard, The Ashmolean Museum, Threads of Silk and Gold: Ornamental Textiles from Meiji Japan, p.120-137 for comparable examples of Meiji textiles featuring peacocks.

This type of very large Japanese embroideries with a painterly quality is typical of the textiles that were displayed in international exhibitions in the late 19th century, selected to promote the arts and crafts of Japan. One notable example is a large, 305cm by 244cm wall hanging depicting dragons today at the Bowers Museum, California, acquired from the Japanese pavilion at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.