Silk altar frontals were suspended around the front and both sides of a table, covering the legs. They did not cover the table top. Often they were made in sets of three, for two smaller tables and one large one. For an example of such frontals in situ, also decorated with dragons as in the present lot, see a black and white photograph of the interior of the Palace of Earthly Repose, where sacrifical banquets were held, reproduced by Wan-go Weng and Yang Boda in The Palace Museum: Peking, New York, 1982, pp. 54 and 55