Arik Johnson’s Weblog

Yet the greatest challenge was finding craftsmen who could replicate the refined decorations that are no longer fashionable, said Berliner. One surprising find, she said, was an 80-year-old man in the eastern city of Yangzhou who still knew how to carve lanterns from goat horns.

Artisans from Zhejiang province have preserved techniques for using the inner skin of bamboo and bamboo thread in woodworking, skills needed to restore a two-story screen in the apartment's entrance.

The zeal the Qianlong Emperor showed for the project underscored the diligence he applied throughout his 60-year reign. Though he retired in 1796, he never moved into the studio, preferring to stay in the western half of the palace to watch over his son, the new emperor.

"Ultimately the greatest delight he derived from it may have been the creative process," Berliner wrote in the catalog.