Books and Scholars’ Accoutrements

First produced around the second half of the eighteenth century, chaekgado (literally, “pictures of bookshelves”) flourished throughout the 1800s as a royal emblem. And soon this pictorial genre became a popular furnishing item for aristocrats' elegant studies. The third panel from the right bears a hidden seal that reveals the artist: Yi Taek-gyun, a prominent court artist active in the late 1800s.