A pair of C19th Chinese silk sleeve bands in cream and blue

A pair of good Chinese silk sleeve bands dating from the late Nineteenth Century.  The bands are made of a rich cream-coloured silk with the design embroidered using three blue (san lan) silk colours with a seed stitch (also known as forbidden stitch), and outlined in couched gold thread.  Each sleeve band has a design of a central paeony flower with two butterflies on either side.  Length of each sleeve band is 53cm (21") and width 13cm (5.1").

The sleeve bands are both in good condition.  The embroidery is in very good condition.  Both sleeve bands have occasional light spotting to the cream silk background (please examine our photographs).