LATE 16TH/EARLY 17TH CENTURY

This portable box was designed to fit between the rails of an official's sedan chair, to be easily removed and taken inside. This standard form accomodated paper and scrolls in the central section, with brushes and seals in the projecting ends.

For a discussion of sedan chair boxes, see Grace Wu Bruce, "Small Portable Treasures," Journal of the Classical Chinese Furniture Society, Autumn 1993, pp. 57-59.