'Smoke Here, Not Hereafter, ' a 19th Century English Embroidered Textile

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This rare late-19th-century embroidered panel doesn’t moralize so much as it levels with you. English in origin, worked in silk … Read more This rare late-19th-century embroidered panel doesn’t moralize so much as it levels with you. English in origin, worked in silk on a hand-woven linen ground, it belongs to the world of leather lounge chairs, thick smoke in low light, and unhurried evenings..

The scene unfolds with dry confidence. A sharply dressed top-hatted gentleman walks, cigar lit, fully committed to the present. Surrounding him, pipes hover and drift, their smoke rising toward a stitched admonition that makes its meaning unmistakable: this pleasure is for now, not later. The joke lands cleanly, without apology.

Once hung in a gentleman’s smoking room, it spoke directly to its audience. Today, it holds its own beside any modern art collector’s favorite paintings—an unexpected work of silk folk art that still understands exactly who it’s talking to. See less