The ancient Chinese art of mounting works of
calligraphy and painting has a long history and shows great ingenuity, yet the
techniques have relied on oral transmission in a practical setting and there are few written records detailing the craft, so that its study has been limited to technique while rarely examining the styles and artistic features of the craft in different periods. Because ancient works of
calligraphy and painting have frequently changed hands this process has resulted in works often being re-mounted in different styles and this has meant that works have often lost their base mounting or have been inappropriately mounted. The mountings in the Palace Household Of?ce in the Qianlong period were a synthesis of all previous styles and represented the highest attainment in mounting. The relatively complete
collection of originally mounted Qing Dynasty paintings in the collection of the Palace Museum provides excellent materials for studying mounting styles. On the basis of this, the author systematically examines the original mountings of the collection of calligraphy and paintings from the Qianlong period Palace Household Of?ce and presents a preliminary study of the styles of the period and their artistic features in the hope that this will contribute to future research on the art of the mountings of ancient Chinese works of calligraphy and painting.