This stunning silk embroidery from the mid 19th century depicts Chinese precious objects on tables in the manner preferred by scholars. This subject matter is one of the most popular of the Chinese 19th century literati. The use of forbidden stitch to create such large images is amazing and almost unheard of. Each panel is mounted to a small piece of wood which is then in a fine Hong Mu standing floor screen. This item is from the collection of William Jennings. This collection was assembled by Jennings’ parents, who lived in Tianjin, China (then known as Tientsin) in the 1930s. Jennings’ father, Harold Jennings, was a British naval engineer who had originally come to China in the late 1920s and ran a shipyard in Tianjin. His mother, Mary Bayley Jennings, was a nurse from Ohio who originally traveled to Tianjin in 1938. The Jennings were active in the expatriate community in China and throughout Asia, and traveled within Asia, to places such as Hong Kong and Kyoto, collecting art pieces while they went. William Jennings was born in 1939, and the family moved to the United States in 1941 to escape growing conflict in the region, taking their collection with them. Condition One panel is loose, and one panel is detached. Fading to fabric.