Quilt central panel and outer border: 17th century; inner border: second half of 17th century Chinese, for European market, and European The embroidered portions of this cloth were probably once part of a large marriage bedcover made in China for export. Later, the precious bedcover was cut up, and portions were pieced together with a delicate quilted European floral silk to create the panel as it appears today.¹ Its relatively small size indicates that it may have served as a christening or bearing cloth for a child being carried to the baptismal font for christening.² At the very center of the textile are three bands from the original coverlet, one with a roundel containing a scene of a man and a woman flanking a tree, perhaps inspired by traditional depictions of Adam and Eve. The blossoming tree grows from a large container decorated with a continuous pattern of hexagons, a Chinese design suggesting longevity, and on the tree is a bleeding heart pierced with arrows, a secular symbo