3-052-313 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Imperial Wedding in China: entrance to the Bride's Palace, Pekin, 1872. '...view of the palace erected for the separate dwelling of the bride elect, from the time when she was chosen..to become the spouse of his Imperial Majesty, who is a boy fifteen or sixteen years of age. This palace is situated in the Tartar city, to the north of the Imperial city. Here the young lady has resided since she was taken from her father's house; and she has been attended by the ladies of the Court, to instruct her in all the rules and customs of that etiquette which belongs to her august destination. The palace is a very large building...it is surrounded by a wall...The Illustration represents the principal gateway, which is decorated with a mass of silk-work, after the custom of the Chinese at marriages. The silk is...bordered and fringed, and ornamented...There are four red posts to support this canopy, and they have each, a yellow dragon twisted round them...The pedestals are also of yellow - the Imperial colour - and on them is the Chinese monogram for happiness. All that is visible within the gate is a white lion or griffia, and the window of one of the houses at the end of a walk. None but the officials attached to the place were permitted to enter'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.