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Hello~ Can anyone here give me a rough translation on these characters that appear on a silk 100 children tapestry.Have not seen any online with these marks. Thank you SOOO much!!

童樂圖 "Scene of Children Enjoying Themselves"

湘繡 "Embroidery from Hunan (province)

Rat's translation is correct.

Thanks Super & Rat. The fact of 湘 being short for Hunan is one of those rare tidbits that eluded the usually astute compilers of my ancient Mathews Chinese-English Dictionary. And of course it's only a desire to avoid defacing that hallowed reference book and not innate laziness that keeps me from updating my copy with marginal notes. :)

Bill H.

The bold black characters in the first picture (both of them are flipped 90 degrees left of viewing position) read 童樂画 (tong le hua), translatable as "Painting of Children's amusements".

The red seal reads down and across from the right as 相肅水糸 (xiang su shui mi), translatable as "Xiang Su Water Silk". Xiang and Su are both surnames, and Su also is an abbreviation for Gansu Province.

It may take further research to figure out when and where this piece was made. I've heard that some of these embroidered pictures were done by cottage industries started under U.N. auspices circa after World War II in a number of Asian countries where sericulture was practiced. The U.N. handed out pattern kits ("sew by the number" in some cases) to assist in the production of the pictures, so similarities exist among those made in different countries.

Best regards,

Bill H.

Thank you so much rat & Bill H.for the translation and info.All of that helps a lot. Yes, I know the photo was flipped. It was right side up in my photo file so maybe flipped to fit the page format. The tapestry is quite large and not like any of the typical ones people bring back today as souvenirs. I am just trying to help a church thrift shop evaluate some of their art donations and this one had us all stumped. I knew you all at Asian Art could help. I will welcome any other info anyone may have. Thank you so much!!!!

It is not "tapestry," a woven product, but embroidery on a cloth base.

No loom was involved in producing the images.

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