Large Chinese Late Qing Folk Art Bamboo Wedding Basket

Chinese: Folk Art: Utilitarian Accessories Pre 1900: item #789639

Very large Chinese folk art bamboo basket with a removable inner shelf. The "double happiness" symbols on the side indicate it might have been intended as a wedding basket. Dates circa 1900. 28"H x 19" diameter (23" across the handle). Very good overall condition with some loosening of the bamboo at the bottom.

Carved Wood Rice Cake Molds

Chinese: Folk Art: Utilitarian Accessories Pre 1940: item #788174
10-57

Handcarved wooden molds used in making rice cakes for Chinese celebrations at New Year and the first full moon conveyed a family's hopes for good fortune in the coming year. On this set of four, special wishes for abundance are expressed with carvings of fish, symbolizing plenty, regeneration and harmony. The rice cakes themselves, whether made with such special molds or just patted into round or oval shapes, carry a symbolic meaning of peace, harmony and the family circle. Also called moon cake... Click for details

Chinese Filial Honor Folk Woodcut

Chinese: Folk Art: Primitive Paintings Pre 1980: item #786953
01-25

Filial respect, a cornerstone of Chinese culture, is portrayed in this woodblock print from the Huxian painting community in Shaanxi Province. Although sometimes attributed solely to Confucian thought, filial piety has been of paramount importance within all belief systems in China and throughout most other Asian countries as well. There is charm and nostalgia in this glimpse back into China's not very distant past. The woodcut was produced in a rural painting cooperative that was one of about f... Click for details

Folk Painting From Chinese Mountain Village

Chinese: Folk Art: Primitive Paintings Pre 1990: item #776684
03-77

A Chinese folk painting from a remote village in the mountains of Yijun County, Shaanxi Province, shows a mythical beast with feathery fangs and a pinwheel on his rump. Paintings from this isolated community above the tree line, drawing on centuries-old embroidery and papercut patterns used by the women of the village, often featured extraordinary creatures in fantasy-like settings. The work of Yijun's peasant painters is included in "The Best of Modern Chinese Folk Painting," published by Fore... Click for details

Miao women’s apron

Chinese: Folk Art: Handicrafts Pre 1970: item #773862
1860

Beautiful Miao woman’s apron with black calendered cotton cloth, and green commercial (possibly polyester) border, and fine silk embroidered center panel with hand woven silk embellished apron ties, from Guizhou. The colors in center panel are particularly luscious and I would date this piece 30 to 50 years of age. W: 40cm/15.8in and L: 43cm/17in.

Maonan wedding blanket

Chinese: Folk Art: Handicrafts Pre 1920: item #773837
1859

Rare two paneled “wedding blanket” from the small Maonan minority people of northern Guangxi Zhuang Province, with silk brocade symbols on cotton warp and weft foundation highlighted by a floating weft “key fret” pattern throughout, this piece is 60 to 90 years. The Maonan textile is unique in that they use floral and zoomorphic designs in their blankets as opposed to the Zhuang patterns which are far more geometrical. Aside from the few inevitable worn spots, that can only be notice... Click for details

Yi minority woman’s skirt panel

Chinese: Folk Art Pre 1960: item #773815
1858

Good woman’s skirt panel or apron from the Yi minority, approximately 40 to 60 years old. Old Yi textiles are quite rare due to Yunnan’s (the Yi cultural heartland) proximity to Thailand where they have been bought up and collected by Thai dealers since all the old “Hill Tribe” textiles in Thailand have long since vanished. The Yi are one of the oldest of the ethnic groups in China (besides the Han of course) and were a warlike tribe being a feudal slave owning society up to (and a litt... Click for details

Folk Painting of Luochuan in Shaanxi Province

Chinese: Folk Art: Primitive Paintings Pre 2000: item #768880
03-83

This charming Chinese folk painting of embroidered felt liners for shoes comes from a rural area in the north of Shaanxi Province. It was painted by a peasant woman who used for her subject the embroidery she was doing for her children, and so merges the centuries-old folk tradition of needlework with the later artistic expression of paint on paper. The Luochuan painting community was among more than 50 such groups that began emerging in China in the late 1950s. (See "The Best of Modern Chinese ... Click for details

Bamboo oracle sticks

Chinese: Folk Art Pre 1920: item #765756
1846

Rare ensemble of three pairs of fortune telling bamboo culms. You will find these in almost any active Chinese Taoist temple or with any village shaman from a Sinicized minority in Southeast Asia. These are quite unique in that they are using the angular sections of the bamboo where all the others I have seen are simply carved from wood or use bamboo shoot tips. Difficult to date these so I can only go by the feel of the wear on the surface. The newest are the largest pair probably only 30 o... Click for details

A Chinese Huanghuali Clapper, 19th Century

Chinese: Folk Art Pre 1900: item #763065
10217

A Chinese Huanghuali Clapper. Apart of some minor chips, it is in excellent condition.

Length 10 inch (26cm)