Souvenir of Peking, 1908

This type of Chinese silk embroidered souvenir from Peking appear regularly for sale at auction. They were locally embroidered and sold to soldiers who then usually slipped in a portrait photograph and sent them home as rememberances of their time in China. This one is slightly different in that a photo of Yuan Shi-kai, then head of the Beiyang Army (& about to be deposed upon Cixi’s death) was added.

This example is from the 2nd Cameron Highlanders with their cap badges and 10 embroidered flags of foreign nations represented in the Legation Quarter as well as the Qing. Peking N. (north) China is scrolled across the bottom. It is from 1908, the only year the Cameron Highlanders were in China. Hundreds, if not thousands, of these were sold to foreign troops in Peking from the late 19th century to the 1920s.