19th C. Chinese Pith Painting Portrait of Woman with Opium Pipe leather bootie WIth original pink board liner

WIth original pink board liner around the bottom interior

and all in good working order: hitting either of the chipmunks will knock them back

a brass lord's prayer tag

The seams and heel are nicely detailed as well

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

19th C. Chinese Pith Painting Portrait of Woman with Opium Pipe leather bootie WIth original pink board linerThis 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,