Previously sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, November 1984, lot 903.

Boxes that are decorated on both the top and bottom surfaces are rare, with only a few extant examples recorded. Cf. the box included in the exhibition 2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer, Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong, 1993, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 70; and another sold in these Rooms, 7 July 2003 (Catalogue dated 28 April 2003), lot 726. All three boxes, including the present example, are heavy for their size, suggesting that the inner core is constructed of metal.