†  A large Chinese Gu Family 'Eight Immortals' embroidered silk panel , 17th century, very finely embroidered with the landscape scene depicting three immortals, Zhongli Quan, Lan Caihe and Han Xiangzi, all carrying their Daoist vessels, the figures exquisitely rendered with naturalistic expressions and movements, and dressed in flowing robes of multiple colours and textures, all situated along a winding landscaped path with painted details, picture size 130cm x 30.6cm, framed and glazed Provenance: Formerly from an old American family collection The present lot would once have be part of a larger set of silk panels. See a very similar complete set of Gu Family embroidered silk panels depicting the Eight Immortals, Ming Dynasty, at the Taipei Palace Museum, museum accession number 故-絲-000213-00000. Gu embroidery [gu xiu] is a family style of Chinese embroidery that originated from Gu Mingshi's family during the late Ming dynasty (1368-1644) in Shanghai. Traditionally seen as a leisure 'female activity' in Imperial China, the family's womenfolk innovatively integrated brush painting and embroidery in a complementary manner and brought such 'leisure activity' to another level The female members of the Gu Family were well-known for their artistic and skilled embroidery. The most famous was Han Ximeng, the wife of Gu Mingshi's second grandson. Reflecting the subtleties of classic painting, the Gu family revived earlier Song-dynasty embroidery techniques by applying subtle shading and splitting the silk floss into even finer threads 明晚期 顾绣八仙贺寿图轴挂屏 拍品来源：美国私人旧藏，参见台北故宫所藏类似顾绣八仙挂屏（故-絲-000213-00000） Condition Report: Embroidery threads thin and discoloured, with losses most noticeable in figures' garments. General fading, and scattered tears, losses (some with fabric patches), loose threads