GUEST: This is a Chinese embroidery, I believe. My grandfather was in China during the Boxer Rebellion. He was part of the relief expedition. He bought this from a vendor in the streets of Beijing after the empress left the palace with her entourage. And evidently, there were people that must have gone into the palace, I'm assuming. Before he would give it to him, after he paid him, he took the face, and the face was evidently painted on silk. And that's why we think it came from the palace, because we're assuming that it might have been the empress dowager, and a commoner was never allowed to see the face of the empress dowager.
APPRAISER: Those at the Asian table have seen this figure depicted in Chinese art often, and it's not the empress dowager.
GUEST: Oh, okay.
APPRAISER: This is a court beauty, a celestial beauty. She's more than likely holding bars that would contain the elixir of long life, which is a popular motif in Chinese works of art. She's also flanked by celestial attendants with attributes of shou, or long life.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: She has a pendant here, which has the shou symbol of long life.
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: These peaches are representative of long life. In reference to the face, these are padded and they are often painted, and they are the most fragile element of the textile. So the story of it being removed is a possibility.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISE: But it being removed because it represented the empress dowager...
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: ...is likely incorrect.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: This would have been something hung in a merchant, upper-middle- class Chinese family. You can have a face made inexpensively, and it will affect the value, but people are more willing to accept textiles, especially, with alteration. Good color, some rubbing.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Vibrant image. In need of repair, but it would have an auction estimate of around $1,000 to $1,500.
GUEST: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And in a retail setting with a repaired face, with a little bit of in-painting, perhaps, or rethreading, it would have a value of $3,500.
GUEST: I see, okay. All right, I'm... I'm used to her without the face. In our family, it's always been known as the faceless lady, so we... (laughing): I, I would feel funny with the face on her, I think.