18TH-19TH CENTURY

Just as with official court attire, the Imperial Household Agency oversaw the procurement of palace furnishings and governed their proper placement and use throughout public chambers and imperial residences. A cut-velvet carpet of similar size and decoration, dated to the late 18^th century, is published in Imperial Silks: Ch’ing Dynasty Textiles in the Minneapolis Museum of Arts, vol. II, 2000, pp. 1094-5, no. 543, acc. no. 50.22, where the author notes that luxurious silk-velvet carpets were made in very limited quantities in South China, in cities such as Nanjing and Hangzhou.