17th century embroidered silk velvet

China, for the Portuguese market

The green silk velvet embroidered with silk and gilt paper wrapped thread and couched silk thread.

This velvet is closely related to a hanging or coverlet in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no. 15.43.314, illustrated as fig. 47 in the catalogue of the exhibition ‘Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500-1800’, publ. Thames & Hudson, 2013), having in common not only the colour and design but also the technique, in which the traditional East Asian gilt paper wrapped thread overlays tightly compacted paper to simulate European couched work when employed to imitate European motifs. The individual panels of which the current velvet is contrived would originally have been intended to form a short cope.

102cm (40⅛”) high and 190cm (74¾”) wide.

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