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Lot Essay
The box and cover bear two inscriptions, both very worn and only a small part of which can be discerned. On the interior of cover it is inscribed '...wu zhi' (commisioned by ...Wu), and on the base of the box 'Wan...xu nian...Chen Wu ban' (commissioned by Chen Wu in the ...xu year of Wan...). It is possible that the box and cover was commissioned by Chen Wu, an official in Fujian in the Jiajing and Wanli period (he obtained jinshi in 1541), and was recorded to have led a revolt against the Qing goverment.
The shape of the present box is very unusual. A woven bamboo and lacquer box of similar high domed, octagonal shape, and bearing a Wanli date is illustrated by J.Y.C. Watt, The Sumptuous Basket, Chinese Lacquer with Basketry Panels, China House Gallery, The China Institute in America, 1985, pl.7. Compare also a 15th cenutry five-lobed covered food box of tixi lacquer decorated with similar ruyi scrolls, in the Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, included in the exhibition Carved Lacquer, the Tokugawa Art Museum and the Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, 1984, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 18.
The shape of the present box is very unusual. A woven bamboo and lacquer box of similar high domed, octagonal shape, and bearing a Wanli date is illustrated by J.Y.C. Watt, The Sumptuous Basket, Chinese Lacquer with Basketry Panels, China House Gallery, The China Institute in America, 1985, pl.7. Compare also a 15th cenutry five-lobed covered food box of tixi lacquer decorated with similar ruyi scrolls, in the Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, included in the exhibition Carved Lacquer, the Tokugawa Art Museum and the Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, 1984, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 18.