Panel
Object name
Date made
Mid to late 20th century
Place made
Description
Mid to late 20th-century canvaswork panel featuring Chinese-style imagery, including a dragon and phoenix.
Content description
Mid to late 20th-century canvaswork panel showing Chinese-style imagery, including a phoenix flying through the sky and a dragon with a flaming pearl, emerging from the sea. In the top right hand corner is a line of traditional Chinese script, 龍飛鳳舞 (lóng fēi fèng wǔ), a Chinese idiom which translates to 'dragon flies, phoenix dances' and which is used to describe something flamboyant. The embroidery is worked on canvas in silk and metal threads. There is a piece of appliqued netting suggesting a puff of smoke or light cloud. The picture is in a cotton velvet frame.
The background behind the phoenix, representing the sky, is worked in a pattern of alternating oblique Gobelin stitches in a horizontal orientation and behind the dragon, representing the earth, is another pattern of alternating oblique Gobelin stitches in a vertical orientation. The river is worked in brick stitches in shades of blue. The top three sections of the tail feathers of the phoenix are worked in cross stitches on top of tent stitches and in reversed tent stitches. Stitches used in the phoenix's body, wings, and head include tent, cross, Byzantine, double linked cross stitch, Hungarian, Moorish, couching, and encroaching oblique Gobelin.
The dragon is made up of tent, straight, cross, and rice stitches. It has bead eyes and its whiskers and tail are made of couched synthetic metal thread and gold twist. The fireball coming out of the dragon's mouth is made of Byzantine stitches and the flaming pearl is made of synthetic and real gold thread in couching, tent, and reversed cushion stitch.
The Chinese script is written in tent stitch. At the bottom is a red square with a character that is meant to represent Chinese but which does not. It is clear from this and from the overall style and stitches of the embroidery that whoever made this was not Chinese but rather was probably a Briton or other European creating a Chinese-style scene, likely from a kit.
In China the dragon and phoenix complement each other. The dragon is associated with water whereas the phoenix is associated with fire. Like the symbols of yin and yang, dragons are masculine and phoenix feminine, but they are interdependent with each other. The flaming pearl is often depicted in the dragon’s claws and is a symbol of wisdom, spiritual energy, and power.
The background behind the phoenix, representing the sky, is worked in a pattern of alternating oblique Gobelin stitches in a horizontal orientation and behind the dragon, representing the earth, is another pattern of alternating oblique Gobelin stitches in a vertical orientation. The river is worked in brick stitches in shades of blue. The top three sections of the tail feathers of the phoenix are worked in cross stitches on top of tent stitches and in reversed tent stitches. Stitches used in the phoenix's body, wings, and head include tent, cross, Byzantine, double linked cross stitch, Hungarian, Moorish, couching, and encroaching oblique Gobelin.
The dragon is made up of tent, straight, cross, and rice stitches. It has bead eyes and its whiskers and tail are made of couched synthetic metal thread and gold twist. The fireball coming out of the dragon's mouth is made of Byzantine stitches and the flaming pearl is made of synthetic and real gold thread in couching, tent, and reversed cushion stitch.
The Chinese script is written in tent stitch. At the bottom is a red square with a character that is meant to represent Chinese but which does not. It is clear from this and from the overall style and stitches of the embroidery that whoever made this was not Chinese but rather was probably a Briton or other European creating a Chinese-style scene, likely from a kit.
In China the dragon and phoenix complement each other. The dragon is associated with water whereas the phoenix is associated with fire. Like the symbols of yin and yang, dragons are masculine and phoenix feminine, but they are interdependent with each other. The flaming pearl is often depicted in the dragon’s claws and is a symbol of wisdom, spiritual energy, and power.
Materials
Stitches
Tent stitch 
Cross stitch
Moorish stitch
Hungarian stitch
Byzantine stitch
Oblique Gobelin stitch
Encroaching oblique Gobelin stitch
Couching
Straight stitch
Reversed cushion stitch
Double linked cross stitch
Brick stitch
Cross stitch
Moorish stitch
Hungarian stitch
Byzantine stitch
Oblique Gobelin stitch
Encroaching oblique Gobelin stitch
Couching
Straight stitch
Reversed cushion stitch
Double linked cross stitch
Brick stitch
Techniques
Motifs
Catalogue number
RSN.2787
© Royal School of Needlework