This ceramic fragment with a turquoise-blue glaze was once part of an architectural ornament showing a band of decoration in relief. It was purchased by C. H. Wylde in China in 1912 as a fragment from the Old Summer Palace, Yuanmingyuan, Beijing. It most likely came from one of the European-style palaces in Yuanmingyuan. These buildings were designed by Italian and French Jesuits working at the Qing court. The Qianlong emperor, who ruled China from 1736 to 1795, had a great fascination for western ‘exotica’. Yuanmingyuan was destroyed by British and French troops during the Second Opium War in 1860 and all that now remains of the splendid buildings are scattered ruins and architectural fragments such as this.