The four-character mark may be translated, 'treasure box of many blessings'

This box with its added four-character inscription appears to be one from a goup of similarly incised, carved red lacquer boxes produced to imperial order, and assigned a specific name by the Emperor Qianlong. For another example from this group see the square box with a pattern of horses on a dense ground of waves and incised with the mark, zema baohe, in the Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, England, included in the Inaugural Exhibition, 1993, Catalogue, vol. 2, no. 326. A box inscribed with a mark that translates as 'golden box of flying dragons' is illustrated in The Art of the Dragon, Boston, 1988, pl. 143-144; and a small circular box with a four-character mark reading 'treasure box with dragon pattern' was included in the exhibition, The Minor Arts of China, Spink & Son Ltd., 1983, London, Catalogue, no. 4. Compare, also, the box from this group carved with flying fish and waves with the mark feiyu baohe ('flying fish precious box') from the collection of Edgar and Hedwig Worch, sold in these rooms, June 2, 1994, lot 39