Page 171 - Christies IMportant Chinese Art Sept 26 2020 NYC

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AMERICAN
COLLECTION
1621
A YELLOW-GROUND SILK CARPET
19TH CENTURY
The carpet is decorated with a pattern of
red and blue floral roundels within key-fret
borders, within decorative borders of further
floral motifs, and red fringe worked in a
hexagonal web on each short end. There is a
five-character mark reading Qianqing Gong
yuyong (for imperial use in the Palace of
Heavenly Purity) in a line along the top.
68 in. (172.7 cm.) x 109 in. (276.8 cm.)
$50,000-70,000

The Qianqing Gong, or 'Palace of Heavenly
Purity', the first of the Three Rear Halls,
formerly contained the sleeping chambers
of Ming emperors. During the Qing dynasty,
however, emperors began to manage
state affairs from the Qianqing Gong. The
Palace was eventually turned into a formal
living room and offices, where emperors
summoned subordinates for consultation,
received foreign envoys, as well as gave
banquets for family members, relatives
and high officials (see Wan-go Weng and
Yang Boda, The Palace Museum: Peking,
Treasures of the Forbidden City, 1982, p.
50). It is uncertain whether or not this
carpet was ever used in the Palace, but
if it were, carpets inevitably would have
been replaced at regular intervals. A similar
carpet sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 31 May
2010, lot 1930.

清十九世紀 黃地團花紋毯