High quality set of 4 kossu embroideries, all matching and compete. Along with a well embroidered silk roundel with butterflies. All 19th century. This item is from the collection of William Jennings. This collection was assembled by Jennings’ parents, who lived in Tianjin, China (then known as Tientsin) in the 1930s. Jennings’ father, Harold Jennings, was a British naval engineer who had originally come to China in the late 1920s and ran a shipyard in Tianjin. His mother, Mary Bayley Jennings, was a nurse from Ohio who originally traveled to Tianjin in 1938. The Jennings were active in the expatriate community in China and throughout Asia, and traveled within Asia, to places such as Hong Kong and Kyoto, collecting art pieces while they went. William Jennings was born in 1939, and the family moved to the United States in 1941 to escape growing conflict in the region, taking their collection with them. Condition Kossu embroideries are in very good condition with some very minimal thread loss; roundel displays damage to the weave with more significant losses to embroidery threads.