This altar frontal would have either been used on a Lamaist altar within the Palace precincts or have been presented to a Tibetan Buddhist temple by the court as an Imperial tribute.

A closely related embroidered yellow-ground altar frontal also decorated with the 'Eight Auspicious Symbols' and the 'Seven Royal Treasures' from the Palace Museum collection, Beijing, was included in the Royal Academy of Arts exhibition China, The Three Emperors, 1662-1795, London, 2005, Catalogue p. 138, no. 43.

This embroidered altar frontal compares best to another yellow-ground example, with similar iconography but of later date, and possibly a marriage of two different pieces, illustrated by Robert Jacobsen, Imperial Silks, Chi'ing Dynasty Textiles in The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Vol. II, Minnesota, 2000, no. 464.