Page 70 - Christie's London China Trade Paintings Kelton Collection

*47
[CANTON, CIRCA 1855]
A Chinese silk waistcoat with embroidered panels illustrating paddle-steamers on the front and back, the ivory silk
panels set with fowers and other motifs embroidered in gold thread, within decorative borders.
silk and gold thread
mounted in a perspex case
approximately 24 x 23in. (61 x 58.5cm.)
£4,000-6,000 US$5,000-7,500
€4,600-6,800
PROVENANCE:
with Jon Eric Riis, Oriental Textiles and Costumes, Atlanta, Georgia, from whom acquired, 16 March 1995.

EXHIBITED:
Hong Kong, Hong Kong Maritime Museum, The Dragon and the Eagle: American Traders in China, A Century of Trade from 1784 to
1900, Dec. 2019-April 2019, 3.28.
'The major staples of the trade ... other than tea, were silk and nankeens. It was for these magnifcent fabrics that the traders
haunted the shops and hongs of the silk merchants at Canton, and the yardage exported to America ran into hundreds of thousands
every year. ... Hundreds of costumes found in historical museums on the eastern American seabord are made of China trade silks
possibly the most frequently used fabric for fne garments in the frst half of the 19th century. ... Gentlemen's waistcoats were either
embroidered and sewn up or sent back to the West embroidered and uncut. Captain John Green's account books for the Empress of
China [the frst American ship to reach China in 1786] list under 'investments' for Joseph Barrell '24 silk waistcoats made pr. invoice
$48 ...'' (Crossman, p.378). 'Embroidered vests' are among the China trade items specifcally mentioned in the manifests of ships
heading back to San Francisco in the Gold Rush years (for which see T.N.Layton, Gifts from the Celestial Kingdom: A Shipwrecked
Cargo for Gold Rush California, Stanford, 2002, pp.64, 221).

68 In addition to the hammer price, a Buyer’s Premium (plus VAT) is payable. Other taxes and/or an Artist Resale Royalty
fee are also payable if the lot has a tax or λ symbol. Check Section D of the Conditions of Sale at the back of this catalogue.