A black lacquer and mother-of-pearl inlaid round box and cover. 17th century The flat lid displaying the hermits Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao with shouldered baskets looking for medicinal herbs in a landscape with two fairies in the sky into whose realm they enter and live for hundreds of years. On the shoulder of the lid and the box proper cartouches filled with birds and fowers and a pattern of flower filled hexagons. Several losses to the inlays, and damages and restorations due to age. Height 8.8 cm; diameter 22.5 cm

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