A good quality Chinese silk embroidered fragrance purse, late Qing

Code: 250559

An attractive Chinese silk fragrance purse with gold-coloured silk draw strings with gold-coloured silk tassels attached. The purse is decorated on both sides with hand-embroidered fruiting (probably peach) plants and bats, using a fine seed stitch (sometimes called 'forbidden stitch'). The silk tassels are bound at their ends with metal wire.  The purse dates from the late Qing period.  The body of the purse is 8cm / 3.1" tall.

The combination of bats and peaches forms a rebus in Chinese with the meaning of wishes for happiness and a long life.

The purse is in good condition, with some wear to the raised gathers on the body and at the mouth of the purse, and to the purse edges, and slight fraying to some of the silk stitches. One very small hole above the bat's wing on one side (please examine our photographs).