Location info and some photos withheld. As of my last visit, this mural site is vulnerable to theft or destruction. I have withheld the location beneath the county level and any photographs (of steles, signs, scenery, etc.) that might identify the place. If you are an accredited scholar and you have a good reason to want to see this information, email me and we’ll talk about it.

Structure Type: Painted panels set above courtyard gateway in a village house.

Location: Yu County, Hebei Province 河北蔚縣.

Period: 18th-19th century. I really have no idea when this was painted, I’m just guessing from the style and colors.

Artist: Unknown.

Mural Contents: The mural shows a “case of many treasures” 多寶閣 -type shelf-wall, set with an assemblage of precious or interesting items. The position over the door of a wealthy household-courtyard emphasizes the family’s purchasing-power and connoisseurship.

The screens are situated high up in a narrow doorwell, such that they are impossible to photograph head on. I warped the below photos to display them more clearly, but the results are imperfect.

Other Notes: Screens with this type of perspectival “bookcase-pictures” are usually associated with Joseon Korea, where they are called chaekgeori 책거리 冊巨里 or chaekgado 책가도 冊架圖. Such images did exist scattered in rural China, but I haven’t seen many examples; more commonly such assemblages of scrolls or fruit form part of the backdrop to certain diety iconographies, for instance the Yama Kings 閻王 or the Goddesses 娘娘.

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