Lot 266. An orange-ground silk woman's 'butterfly' robe, changyi, 19th century. Sold for £3,750 (€4,869). Sold for £3,750 (€4,869). Photo: Bonhams.

Delicately embroidered in satin stitch and 'Peking knot' with a profusion of butterflies flitting around bunches of melons growing out of leafy vines and tendrils, all meticulously executed in three-blue silk threads on a rich orange brick ground within cream and black borders decorated with further butterflies picked out in mauve, turquoise and green. 128cm (50 3/8in) long

Property from the Mr. and Mrs. C. Lefebvre Collection of Chinese Robes

Note: Emblematic of summer, beauty, romance and dreams, butterflies are a homophone with the word 'repeatedly', thus underscoring the wish for many descendants if combined with seed-bearing gourds, such as in the present example. A related orange-ground robe, embroidered with flowers and butterflies in the multiple shades of blue, is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, no.1971.90.

Bonhams. AUCTION 23237: FINE CHINESE ART, LONDON, NEW BOND STREET