The use of certain designs at certain periods necessitates a constant rever-sion to the history of the Empire as the only means of obtaining a clue to the reasons why they were selected ; for example, there are certain Mohammedan designs in products of the Kien-lung period which have borne without explanation the name of Kashgarian.
This may be explained by the historic fact that one of the favorites of Kien-lung was a Kashgarian princess, for whom he ordered built a special mosque near the royal residence in Peking, and for whose use he procured much that was not in the least suggestive of the native religions in China or Buddhism, but savored wholly of Moslem thought and ideas.
