Page 75 - Bonhams Chiense Paintings New York July 21 2020

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A RARE NEEDLELOOP EMBROIDERY PANEL The needleloop technique utilizes rows of detached buttonhole stitches
Ming dynasty over gilded paper. The tiny holes that form the geometric patterns are
The black silk panel finely embroidered in needleloop technique over created by skipping stitches within the row, allowing the gilded paper
gilded paper, to form a scene of two blossoming lotus plants growing to show through. In the narrow stems, open chain stitches are used to
from lotus roots with fish and water weeds below, interspersed with hold the gilded paper in place.
birds, butterflies and other flowering aquatic plants, enclosed within
a border of scrolling aquatic plants with floral motifs and coins at the A Yuan dynasty needleloop embroidery panel of peonies and butterflies
corners, open chain stitches and skipped stitches in the embroidery in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York is
creating geometric patterns allowing the gilded paper to show through. illustrated by James C.Y. Watt and Anne E. Wardwell, When Silk Was
14 5/8 x 14 3/8in (37.2 x 36.5cm) Gold: Central Asian and Chinese Textiles, New York, 1997, no.54,
p. 185. A Yuan/early Ming dynasty needleloop embroidery in the
US$25,000 - 35,000 Cleveland Museum of Art is illustrated, ibid., no.55, p.187; and a Yuan
dynasty panel of tree peonies is illustrated by Francesca Galloway,
Textile Splendours of the East, London, 2019, no.8.
明 黑地刺繡蓮塘圖方屏
For a discussion on the origins of the needleloop technique, see
Patricia Berger, ‘A Stitch in Time: Speculations on the Origin of
Neddlelooping’ Orientations, August 1989, Vol.20, no.8, pp.45-53.

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