A quite rare and especially impressive embroidered work depicting the American Eagle, in patriotic tableau, in combat with the Imperial Chinese Dragon!

In the twenty eight years we have been studying Asian Export / China Trade antiques, this is the only embroidery we have encountered with the American Eagle and Chinese Dragon not shown in harmony.

We believe this beautiful panel was specially commissioned for an American Naval Officer who took part in the battle at the Taku Forts and Rescue of the American Legation at Peking in 1900.

Beautiful embroideries of combined patriotic and nautical motifs were created in China and Japan in the period 1880 - 1940 for military and diplomatic officers, and merchant ship officers as momentoes of their visit to the East. Very few were commissioned in the impressive thirty eight inch height of this example.

This especially impressive piece is superbly worked in silver and silken thread with excellent composition.

The embroidery is in very fine condition with slight fading and minor fraying at the top edge. We believe the embroidery to be in its original black laquered wood frame.

This is a beautiful, rare, and impressive piece for the collector of marine antiques, military pieces, and textiles.

Please see the detail pictures found by clicking on the picture above. please also review the history of the 'Boxer Rebellion' shown below.

Dimensions: 25 1/2" w. x 38" high
Price: $1950.00

ABOUT THE BOXER REBELLION

When China was defeated by Japan in 1895, European powers responded with a policy they called, "carving up the Chinese melon." Following the partitioning of Africa among European powers, they turned their sights to what they saw as a terminally weak Chinese government. European powers and America began to scramble for what was called "spheres of interest." These spheres of interest involved holding leases for all railway and commercial privileges in various regions. The Russians got Port Arthur, the British got the New Territories around Hong Kong, the Germans got a leasehold in Shantung, and the Americans got nothing. Concentrating largely on the Philipines and Guam, the Americans had missed the Chinese boat and so insisted on an "open door" policy in China in which commercial opportunities were equally available to all European powers and the political and territorial integrity of China remained untouched.

The Boxers

    The imperial court responded to this foreign threat by giving aid to various secret societies. Traditionally, secret societies had been formed in opposition to imperial government; as such, they were certainly a threat to the Ch'ing government. However, anti-foreign sentiment had risen so greatly in China that the Empress Dowager believed that the secret societies could be the vanguard in a military expulsion of Europeans. This policy reached its climax in 1900 with the Boxer Rebellion.

    The Boxers, or "The Righteous and Harmonious Fists," were a religious society that had originally rebelled against the imperial government in Shantung in 1898. They practiced an animistic magic of rituals and spells which they believed made them impervious to bullets and pain. The Boxers believed that the expulsion of foreign devils would magically renew Chinese society and begin a new golden age. Much of their discontent, however, was focussed on the economic scarcity of the 1890's. They were a passionate and confident group, full of contempt for authority and violent emotions.

    In reality, the Boxer rebellion could hardly be classified as either a rebellion or a war against the Europeans. China was largely under the control of regional Governors General; these regional officials ignored the Empress Dowager's instructions and put forth every effort to prevent disorder or any harm coming to foreigners. The Boxer Rebellion, then, was only limited to a few places, but concentrated itself in Beijing. The Western response was swift and severe. Within a couple months, an international force captured and occupied Beijing and forced the imperial government to agree to the most humiliating terms yet: the Boxer Protocol of 1901. Under the Boxer Protocol, European powers got the right to maintain military forces in the capital, thus placing the imperial government more or less under arrest. The Protocols suspended the civil service examination, demanded a huge indemnity to be paid to European powers for the losses they had suffered, and required government officials to be prosecuted for their role in the rebellion. In addition, the Protocols suspended all arms imports into the country.