Crimson Chrysanthemum Garden — Vintage Printed Cotton
A long narrow length of vintage Nantong-style multicolour printed cotton, with sweeping chrysanthemums and blue butterflies on a wine-red ground. Companion to a different colourway in the same floral design.
- Object ID
- TA-NT-0032
- Origin
- Nantong · Attributed to Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China
- Period
- Estimated c. 1950–1965
- Dating confidence
- estimated
- Material
- Traditional cotton cloth; handspun yarn and handwoven homespun attribution
- Dimensions
- One continuous vintage fabric piece, approx. 41 × 195 cm / 16.1 × 76.8 inches
- Technique
- Multicolour folk printing onto cotton (attributed) · Handwoven homespun cotton ground (attributed)
- Pattern
- Large chrysanthemums · Butterflies among flowers (Die Lian Hua) · All-over floral repeat
- Colours
- Deep wine red · Pink · Coral · Cream · Cobalt blue · Teal green
- Washed
- Yes
Object condition
Washed and ironed vintage cotton, sold as one whole continuous piece. Wine-red background, pink and coral chrysanthemum flowers, blue and teal leaves, and blue-and-white butterflies remain expressive. No specific damage is reported in the supplied listing. As an old printed textile it can show age-related storage marks, slight fading, irregular yarn texture, softened print edges and registration variations. Please examine all original photographs including the pale reverse, edges and close-ups.
Identification notes
Owner-supplied original photographs from local inventory folder 129 and Etsy listing 4591848290. Listed as a whole 41 × 195 cm fabric piece, washed and ironed.
The wide curling chrysanthemum petals and dispersed blue-and-white butterflies evoke the traditional butterfly-among-flowers theme, Die Lian Hua (蝶恋花). Chrysanthemums are associated with longevity, while butterflies may evoke companionship and well-being.
A second older textile held in the same shop uses the same decorative floral design in a different colourway: Chrysanthemum and Butterfly Bedsheet (Tubu Atlas TA-NT-0025, Etsy 4555552386). That companion item has a different structure and dimensions, so it is not interchangeable with this narrow length.
The design is multicolour printed onto older cotton. The precise printing plates, printing facility, pigment composition, date of printing and original dyer are not independently verified. The soft reverse and variable registration are photographed; the attribution to a staged colour-printing process follows the supplied provenance and observed appearance.
For creative uses such as small cushion covers, quilting, framed panels and sewing accents, check the usable 41 cm fabric width and handle as vintage cloth. The print-demo in the Virtual Shop is an interactive visual study, not evidence that these exact screens made the historical cloth.
The same floral design, another colour
Compare two surviving vintage textiles with chrysanthemums and butterflies. Their patterns belong to the same design family, but the pieces have different ground colours, dimensions and construction.
Butterflies among chrysanthemums — longevity and companionship
Large chrysanthemums carry wishes for a long and peaceful life; butterflies moving between blossoms evoke happiness and companionship. On the warm red ground, the flowers and blue-toned leaves form a lively all-over composition rather than a framed pictorial scene.
This narrow fabric is an opportunity to study a recurring folk motif across two surviving colourways. The colour transformation is particularly clear when it is compared with Tubu Atlas TA-NT-0025, a joined blue-ground bedsheet using a related large chrysanthemum-and-butterfly design.
Distinct visual details include generous curled petals, delicate printed butterfly wings, handspun-like cotton texture and a noticeably paler impression on the reverse.
