The Peach Festival of the Queen Mother of the West

According to Chinese legend, the Peach Festival is held only once every 3000 years at the celestial Jade Palace in Paradise but it’s worth waiting for. At the festival the ancient goddess Xiwangmu, Queen Mother of the West and the guardian to Taoist women, bestows upon her followers great fortune and perhaps one of the peaches of immortality.  

_{A Chinese magnificent silk kesi 'Peach Festival' hanging scroll
Estimate £8,000-10,000}

The auspicious festival is a long-standing subject in Chinese art. Panels and scrolls on the theme are favourite birthday gifts. This magnificent Qing dynasty (1644-1911) embroidered silk kesi hanging scroll comes for sale in our forthcoming Asian Art Auction. Measuring 175 x 89cm it shows a pantheon of Daoist immortals and deities celebrating as they await the arrival of Xiwangmu who descends gracefully from the sky seated astride her phoenix. 

It is among the many fine examples of Chinese, Tibetan, Japanese and Indian art already consigned for sale. Estimated at £10,000-20,000 is a 4th century gray schist carving of the Buddha.

_{A Gandhara gray schist Buddha, 4th century
Estimate £10,000-20,000}

Shown depicting teaching in the lotus position on a base carved with smaller figures of bodhisattvas and disciples it is typical of the stone sculpture produced in the Gandhara region (today’s north-west Pakistan and north-east Afghanistan) during the height of the Kushan empire. It comes for sale by descent from the collection of Sir James Roll, a city financier who died in 1927. 

If you would like more information about the sale in May, please contact 

Yexue Li

yexueli@sworder.co.uk | 01279 817778