ILLUSTRATED AND EXHIBITED:
Mother of Pearl Inlay in Chinese Lacquer Art,
Tokyo National Museum, 1981, no.103

The box is covered in black lacquer, standing on a round foot, of a delicate size and a rounded form, the top inlaid in a paper-thin layer of mother-of-pearl, azurite, malachite, soapstone, stained bone, cinnabar lacquer, jet, coconut-shell, glass, silver and bronze with a figure riding a horse a landscape set with rockwork and trees. Such an exquisitely crafted, well-reserved lacquered work is rare to see nowadays.