Lot 108. A rare black-ground 'boys and rams' brocade panel, 15th-16th century; 59cm (23 2/8in) long x 23.5cm (9 2/8in) wide. Sold for £5,100 (Estimate  £5,000-8,000). © Bonhams 2001-2022

The silk satin panel finely woven with repeating patterns of boys riding white goats or rams, each figure elegantly dressed in fur-trimmed red and green winter robes, carrying a flowering prunus branch suspending a bird cage over the shoulders, all surrounded by camelias and the Precious Objects including flaming pearls, coral branches, jewels, ruyi heads, lozenges, scrolls, cash and double axe heads, all on a black ground, mounted.

Provenance: Jacqueline Simcox Ltd., London
An English private collection.

Published and Illustrated: Jacqueline Simcox Ltd., Chinese Textiles and Works of Art, London, 2005, p.23.

Note: Elegantly woven in black silk, the present panel is remarkable for its vivid imagery and well-preserved colour. The popular design of boys riding goats is associated with the arrival of spring, and with it, the new year, Winter Solstice, conveyed by the character yang for ram being a homonym for sun, which also represents the male principle thus investing the word with connotations of new life and fertility. The Winter Solstice marked the rebirth of the sun and the beginning of the yang (male) half of the year, and the prunus and camellia flowers, some of the first Spring blossoms, herald the end of winter.

Compare with a very similar 'boys and goats' silk panel, 15th/16th century, illustrated by Feng Zhao, Treasures in silk, Hong Kong, 1999, no.08.09.

Bonhams. FINE CHINESE ART, 3 November 2022, London, New Bond Street