A 1930-1940's Chinese screen printed edition. These were produced for the Chinese public, brought to the US from Shanghai for the Chinese immigrant families brought over years after the men arrived to work in the California Gold Rush.
These were screen printed by hand and measure 4x6. First the black outline would be printed, followed by the various colors, much like block printing developed in India. Silkscreening allowed multiple prints to be made with a single set of screens, one for each color.
Empress Liezu of China invented the use of silk to spin for weaving in 2700 BCE. Observing the silkworm cocoon and realizing its potential for thread. Silkscreen printing was invented in China thousands of years later around 1000 AD using tightly woven silk as a screen to print through, hence the name.
