A Spectacular Example of Chinese Bead Embroidery
Posted by: valeriehector | Filed Under ObjectsI came across this beautiful piece in Beijing in 1997. It was hanging on the back wall of a tiny shop which was devoted almost entirely to jade carvings.
The shop attendant, Mr. Hou Wei Liang, was more than happy to discuss it with me….and eventually he began to tell me of his experiences during World War II, when he served as a translator for General Stillwell on the Burma Road. Or so he said, and that would certainly explain his excellent English-speaking skills.
Anyway, 
it is a spectacular example of Chinese bead embroidery, probably made between 1875 and 1900. It measures 35” wide x 33” high.
It is a table frontal, designed to hang between the two front legs of a table. It features European glass beads couched to a red silk ground which is in turn backed in cotton.
The beads have faded now, their silver linings turned dull. Only a hint of their former sparkle survives. But the strong contrast between the red of the silk and the white of the beads lives on.
This piece is interesting in several ways.
To begin with, the eleven large circular medallions, with their slightly jagged edges, are unusual in Chinese beadwork. No similar pieces have been published as far as I know.
Each of the medallions contains four Chinese characters written in stylized seal script, an archaic script which fell out of everyday use many centuries ago. One possible source of this combination might be ancient pottery roof tiles dating to the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.–220 A.D.), which were similar in overall appearance.* All of the seal script characters are intelligible, except for the ones at the very center of the panel, which are difficult or impossible to read.
Perhaps these ancient roof tile motifs serve to evoke a well-established family line, extending unbroken across many generations, from the distant past to the living present.
The various stylized seal script characters convey only three different phrases, which are repeated several times. Each of the phrases is auspicious in nature, wishing long life, happiness, wealth, and/or good luck, certainly for the viewer and by implication, for the family that possesses the frontal.
These are stock phrases which would be familiar to most Chinese people:
yan nian yi shou (“extending years, adding ages”),
fu gui ji xiang (“wealth, honor, harmony, luck”), and
yi shou da kao (“increasing age, long life”).
Archaic seal script characters would not have seemed out of place on this frontal, even though it was made many centuries after those characters were widely used. In fact, they may have been meant to impart a sense of reverence for the past, and to hint at the frontal owners’ level of refinement and education.
But what I most admire about this piece is its masterful use of space, and the sense of movement imparted by the ribbon-like tendrils that flow outwards from the medallions, almost making them seem as if they are spinning in real time.
(Text and images copyright Valerie Hector 2008)
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*I am grateful to Xue Lei, Ph.D. a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Art History at Columbia University in New York City, for confirming that the roundels on the frontal resemble Han Dynasty roof tile motifs, and for translating the stylized seal script characters.
For rubbings of similar Han Dynasty roof tile motifs, please see
Chinese Calligraphy, by Tseng Yu-ho Ecke (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1971): Figs. 5A-B.
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HI there,
Hey thanks for these Chinese bead embroidery knowledge
Thanks,
Maria