Page 100 - Bonhams ASIAN ART, November 1 2021 London

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A FINE SILK-EMBROIDERED ALLEGORICAL SCENE PANEL The Property of a Lady
Mid-19th century
Depicting a young couple in an elegant fenced terrace among mated Buddhist monks’ robes, jiasha, deeply intertwined with the history of
pairs of birds, she standing beneath fruiting pomegranate and Buddhism in China, are an integral part of China’s material culture.
holding in one hand a fan inscribed with lines from the Zhou Dynasty
romantic poem Shijing Zhounan Taoyao, framed and glazed. Traditionally worn draped over the left shoulder and fastened around
72.5cm (28 1/2in) x 70.5cm (27 3/4in) the torso with a single hook, these robes were traditionally presented
to monks in China on the occasion of their ordination. The textile
£6,000 - 8,000 was therefore a material manifestation of Buddhist teachings and
HK$64,000 - 85,000 ideology, starting from their design and construction: the segments
CNY53,000 - 71,000 were donated by members of the community and stitched together in
a patchwork-like design.
Y
283 * Unlike patchwork, however, their decoration was constructed
A FINE CORAL AND SEED PEARL-EMBROIDERED IVORY SILK according to a very specific arrangement, with a core centre and
BUDDHIST MONK’S ROBE, JIASHA flowing symmetry reminiscent of mandala designs. The modest cut
19th/20th century of the garment and its stitched-together appearance references the
Composed of one hundred and five bands of ivory-white silk neatly rugs worn by the Buddha in his ascetic period.
sewn together into twenty-one columns and framed by an outer
border, with gilt-thread covering the seams, the sections finely A robe of almost identical design, from the John R. Van Derlip Fund,
embroidered in muted tones with a central Shakyamuni under a is in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of art, no. 42.8.240.
canopy, surrounded by Bodhisattvas and Buddhist and possibly
Daoist deities floating on clouds, each row either terminating or
starting with a Buddhist emblem panel, the border with a central
Maitreya and Luohans and Buddhist figures among scrolling lotuses,
the figures and canopy in the central column with details of their
beaded jewellery finely picked out in coral and seed pearls, lined.
124cm (48 3/4in) x 266cm (104 3/4in)

£10,000 - 12,000
HK$110,000 - 130,000
CNY88,000 - 110,000

For details of the charges payable in addition to the final Hammer Price of each Lot
98 | BONHAMS please refer to paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Notice to Bidders at the back of the catalogue.