This is one of the more amazing items I have handled in recent years. It is actuall Chinese in origin. It consists of a beautifully hand embroidered silk tapestry, depicting of a lion among the brush, and it is inscribed in fine calligraphy to British Consul, Harold Ivan Harding, 1931. This tapestry ended up in a Japanese bunker in Bougainville, and was souveniered by a US Marine Corps GI in 1943. What happened in between is almost anyone’s guess. But the tapestry originated in China and was signed by the then Chinese vice premier Hejian, who as a nationalist Chinese General, fought the Japanese — and later the communists, and likely had dedicated the tapestry to Harding before the latter departed China in 1934. How the tapestry wound up in a Japanese headquarters in Bougainville is a mystery. But the full story and name and information of the marine who brought it back is here, as well as the information from the inscription on the tapestry, which reads: “Consul Harding’s Special toy. Signed Hejian, April 10th of the 20th year of the Republic of China (1931).” Hejian went on to be a highly placed govrrnment figure in Taiwan, ROC, after the fall of the Republic of China on the mainland in 1949. He is interred there where he passed away in 1956. Different bios on the internet about Harding depict him as somewhat of a adventuresome man who traveled throughout the Western regions of China, where the nomadic Central Asian tribes live. There is a lot of adventure and intrigue wrapped up in just the tapestry, and the two individuals that it was gifted between. But the gap between that and boganville, remains undiscovered. My conjecture would be when Nanking, the then Chinese Capitol, was overrun by the Japanese in 1937, the tapestry could have been left behind, and then souveniered by a Japanese soldier who much later carried it to Bougainville. An extraordinary piece, which we are very happy to offer on Consignment. COA accompanies. (This tapestry measures 40 inches across by 30 inches down).
