Shi Zongshu

CHINA, Jiangsu, Nantong; Qing dynasty

Shi Zongshu was a gifted embroidery artist who learned the craft alongside her older sister Shi Zongjie. After participating in the Jinsha Handicrafts Exhibition with the work, Lions Playing with Balls of Silk, Shi won the recognition of Zhang Jian, a famous politician, and was recommended to study embroidery under the famed artist Shen Shou in Beijing. After that she was hired by the Nantong Needlework Learning School where she worked as a teacher for over 20 years.
In 1915, Shi collaborated with Zongjie and embroidered Horse-Herding, which was awarded a silver prize in the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Her work, Embroidery of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, is an exquisite piece of needlework now kept at the Shen Shou Art Gallery in Nantong, Jiangsu.