The wall
hanging has an overall design that certainly
would have appealed to an export-market client;
on closer inspection, however, some of the
subject matter would only have made sense to
a consumer in China. Symbolic meaning was inextricable
from decoration in the Chinese idiom; auspicious
motifs were often embedded in designs and deciphered
by an informed observer. Here, the dramatic
pedestal—its irregular contours and cavities
shaped by bands of indigo, pale aqua and white—is
in the form of a craggy, timeweathered Scholar’s
rock (taihu
shi), symbolic of longevity and reliability
and prized as an object of contemplation. The hybrid
basketry-vase may be the hualan, a flowering
basket that is the attribute of Lan Caihe, one
of the Eight Daoist Immortals who grant longevity.
A slender ribbon (shoudai), twisting in
shades of pale coffee and cream, winds around the
vase, ending in a bow-knot flourish. The lengthy
and flowing ribbon is another symbol of longevity;
here, it secures a trio of interlocking blue rings,
nestled in the flowers, to the vase’s rim.
These rings signify Sanyuan, the Three
Firsts. Each ring refers to winning first place
in the provincial, metropolitan and imperial levels
of the Chinese civil service examinations. The
propitious phrase lianzhong
sanyuan—“May you achieve the three
successive firsts”—is represented by
the entwined rings and puns verbally and visually
on the Chinese characters for “circular” and “first,” both
pronounced yuan.
The most distinctively Western feature
seen here are the two vertical floral ropes punctuated
by flowerheads at each bend. Stylistically, this pronounced
meander is a dominant component of European silk designs
of the 1760s—it is not a motif found in Chinese
arts. This inclusion may have been at the behest of
a European merchant who wished his imports to have
an au courant look. Alternately, given the bright
yellow of one side of the embroidery—the official
Qing dynastic color—and the symbolic content,
it could be that this impressive wall hanging decorated
a pavilion in Yuan Ming Yuan, an architectural folly
built in Beijing in European Rococo taste, and a favorite
retreat for the Qianlong emperor. This may explain
the mixture of Chinese motifs connoting endurance
and accomplishment with a recognizable facet of “exotic” Western
fashion. The furnishings for this unique summer palace
have long been lost. A much taller (152”) panel
of identical embroidery, also on reversible satin,
is illustrated in Oriental
Works of Art, Gerard Hawthorn Ltd. (2004),
fig. 100. The catalogue cites that the “restoration
of the Qianlong Emperor’s residence within
the Forbidden City in Beijing has brought to attention
the wealth of similar double-sided embroidered panels” and
that it is likely that such panels were used in
a palatial context.
95” H x 87” W
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