A finely carved cinnabar lacquer circular box and cover Ming Dynasty, 16th Century

the cover intricately carved with a scholar seated on a stool in a lake-side terraced garden, with young attendant standing nearby surrounded by rockwork, pine, bamboo and paulownia trees, with swirls of clouds drifting above, the sides of the box and cover each decorated with a composite band of flowers on a leafy gound including lotus, rose, crab apple, chrysanthemum, peony, and camellia blooms, the interior and base lacquered black

A related cinnabar lacquer box of this classic Ming design, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is illustrated in East Asian Lacquer. The Florence and Herbert Irving Collection, New York, 1991, pl. 27. Compare also a box from the collection of Sir John and Lady Figgis, sold at Christie’s London, 14^th December 1983, lot 7; and another box carved with a sage and a young attendant standing on a pavilion terrace beneath a pine tree, sold in our London rooms, 15^th October 1968, lot 57.