剔紅梔子花紋圓盒

The present box belongs to a distinctive group of incense boxes and covers carved through deep layers of multi-coloured lacquer in the tixi style but with the flattened upper surfaces rather than the more usual rounded three-dimensional relief-decorated designs found in the 15th century. Other related examples, similarly inscribed and carved with various stylised flowers in the Tokugawa Art Museum are illustrated in Karamono, Imported Lacquerwork - Chinese, Korean and Ryukyuan (Okinawa), Nagoya, Japan, 1997, pp. 44-45, nos. 63-65.