An inscription on the original folio for the album identifies these pages as being taken from the Imperial library in the Summer Palace and purchased by Lieutenant G. Chaleuess at that time (now missing). A large section of these illustrations are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; for a discussion see, M. Wilson, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, 'New Research on the Ceremonial Paraphernalia Album in the V&A', vol. 68, 2003-2004, pp. 51-59.

These canopies would have been used in formal ceremonies, as part of the Imperial procession. A portion of a handscroll displaying insignia, including similar canopies, at Emperor Guangxu's wedding celebrations, is illustrated in Holdworth & Courtauld, The Forbidden City: The Great Within, 1995, p. 32. The colours employed on these canopies have a measure of significance in the traditional Chinese belief that particular colours were chosen for ceremonial purpose and thus, assigned to different altars: blue for the Altar of Heaven, yellow for the Altar of Earth, white for the Altar of the Moon, and red for the Altar of the Sun. Although no explanation has been given to these colour codification, it appears that the Qing Emperors followed a tradition set by Ming dynasty Hongwu Emperor's whose decree in 1369 codified porcelain colours for ritual use, following instructions given in the Li Ji, 'Book of Rites', written in the Zhou period (1100-256BC).