MING DYNASTY, LATE 16TH/17TH CENTURY

The present box is similar in style of decoration to another in the Qing Court collection, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of the Palace Museum - 45 - Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Hong Kong, 2006, pp. 252-53, no. 200. The combination of Xiwangmu descending to a gathering of four Daoist immortals, in the central medallion, and the well-carved 'hundred boys' motif on the sides is doubly auspicious.