19th C. Chinese Pith Painting Portrait of Woman with Opium Pipe leather bootie a brass lord's prayer tag

a brass lord's prayer tag

WIth original pink board liner around the bottom interior

so perhaps its inclusion is a play on the mixing of oil and water

Photos don't capture how the homespun warmth and presence of this board

19th C. Chinese Pith Painting Portrait of Woman with Opium Pipe leather bootie a brass lord's prayer tagThis is a Cantonese gouache painting on pith, mounted to good weight backing paper (blue ribbon runs around the perimeter of the pith paper and is what holds the painting to the larger backing paper), which I believe would originally have been housed in a portfolio containing a set of six or twelve, together portraying a selection of court figures in fine dress, perhaps the emperor and empress, too. I love this woman for the opium pipe in her hands,