A large kesi 'immortals' panel, Qing dynasty, 18th / 19th century | 清十八 / 十九世紀 緙絲仙宮壽筵圖

Christie's London, 15th June 1999, lot 198.

倫敦佳士得1999年6月15日，編號198

Kesi weaving was widespread throughout the Qing dynasty, particularly during the Qianlong Emperor's reign. The textiles produced through kesi weaving were utilized as clothing, fans, screens, and scrolls. This particular kesi scroll depicts a group of immortals offering birthday felicitations to the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu), symbolizing an auspicious blessing. Pieces like this could have been commissioned as birthday gifts for esteemed senior members of prominent families.

Compare two kesi scrolls with almost identical design, one from the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Huang Nengfu, Chūgoku kinuorimono zenshi. Nanasennen no bi to waza

[Complete history of Chinese textiles. Skill of seven thousand years], Tokyo, 2015, pl. 9-122; the other from the Liaoning Provincial Museum, illustrated in Jinxiu luoyi qiao tianxia / Heavens' Embroidered Cloths. One Thousand Years of Chinese Textiles, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1995, cat. no. 119. Compare also a related example in the Nanjing Museum and with slightly different arrangements, illustrated in Huang Nengfu, op. cit., pl. 9-118.