A CHINESE SOAPSTONE INLAID BLACK LACQUER CABINET, GUANPIXIANG KANGXI 1662-1722 The rectangular hinged lid lifting to reveal a shallow tray above a pair of doors, with various drawers to the inside, the exterior inlaid with mother of pearl and soapstone, the front with a metal lock plate and decorated with butterflies amidst blossoming floral branches, the top with a landscape scene with figures on sampans and bridges, the sides and the base decorated with precious objects and the interior drawers with the sanduo (Three Abundances), all reserved on a lustrous dark brown lacquer ground, 33.2cm x 33cm x 24.7cm. Provenance: from an English private collection, Sussex. Small cabinets of this type, called guanpixiang or official boxes, were used both as dressing cases to store toiletries and as desks for stationery, writing implements and seals. Their construction with multiple drawers and trays resembles a cabinet rather than a box, and they were more often made in huanghuali or zitan . This piece is unusual in its materials and belongs to a small group of lacquer objects inlaid with hardstones and mother of pearl, a technique originally attributed to the Ming master carver Zhou Zhu, active in Yangzhou during the reign of the Jiajing emperor (1522-66). Compare with two table screens in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Classics of the Forbidden City: Imperial Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, figs.312 and 313. 清康熙 黑漆嵌寶山水博古花鳥紋官皮箱 來源：英國薩塞克斯郡私人收藏。