Trade Stories: Chinese Export Embroideries in the Metropolitan Museum

Three silk textiles embroidered with flower, bird, and animal motifs entered the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1929 as part of a single bequest. Nineteen years later, the museum received a fourth textile, with similar characteristics, from another donor. About this group of objects, which are clearly identifiable as Chinese export embroideries, little else is known for certain. The present article is a first attempt at establishing a history of these works, provisionally setting forth their dates and place of origin, the uses they possibly served, and the routes they may have taken on their centuries-long journey from China to New York. The formats and decorative compositions of the Metropolitan Museum’s embroideries are consistent with those of a specific class of Chinese textiles that were produced as bedcovers for the European market between 1550 and 1800. Similar pieces currently preserved in Japan and Europe attest to the fact that such textiles were exported to both East and west; none remain in China. Their popularity led to the production of imitations in countries along the trade routes and to the evolution of an international style that spread as far as the Andes. Thus, the Museum’s pieces are part of a larger category of textiles represented in collections around the world. Embroideries of this type feature at their center a peony encircled by a pair of facing phoenixes. The phoenixes, in turn, are surrounded by flowers, birds, and a variety of animals. Such compositions are found in two basic formats: vertical, with distinct top and bottom; and four-directional, with motifs radiating from the center. The backgrounds of these works are of two types also: in one, the background is covered entirely with gold-thread embroidery; in the other, the unadorned foundation fabric serves as the backdrop. The stylistic analysis presented in this article will focus exclusively on four-directional compositions with gold backgrounds. The three embroideries that came to the Metropolitan Museum in 1929 were bequeathed by Mrs. h. O. havemeyer; the fourth, bestowed in 1948, was a gift from Catherine D. wentworth. The havemeyer textiles were regarded initially as discrete objects, and each was assigned an accession number. Many years later, however, the Museum’s Textile Conservation Department discovered that the smallest of the three embroideries had been pieced together mostly with fragments from the other two, and conservators embarked on a project to detach the mismatched fragments and restore them to their original positions in the two larger embroideries (see Appendix Diagrams 1 – 3). As a result of this ongoing work, the number of the havemeyer textiles has effectively been reduced from three to two. (All that remains of the third havemeyer textile are two long, narrow strips; see Appendix Diagram 3.) These two embroideries will be referred to here as MMA I (Figure 1) and MMA II (Figure 2). Of the Metropolitan’s embroideries, only the wentworth gift, hereafter referred to as MMA III (Figure 3), is complete. Unfortunately, the work’s original appearance was significantly altered during an earlier restoration, and, since no information has come to light regarding when or where the donor acquired the piece, it is difficult to speculate on its travel history. For these reasons, MMA III will be discussed mainly with regard to the place and date of its production.