CHINE, DYNASTIE QING, XIXÈME SIÈCLE

This type of hanging shelf was designed to be mounted either within a canopy bed or on the side wall of a brick platform bed, serving as convenient storage for scrolls, books, or other small personal items. A similar hanging shelf appears in Twelve Beauties at Leisure, a series of paintings commissioned by Prince Yongzheng around 1709–1723 for a screen in the Deep Willows Reading Hall, his study at the Summer Palace near Beijing. In one scene, a finely dressed lady sits before a bronze mirror beneath a comparable scroll shelf.