The scenes on this lacquer display stand are exquisitely designed in Ming style, depicting lively scenes which would have found great favour with the Jiajing emperor. The theme of 'boys at play', popularised by the Southern Song dynasty Court official, Su Hanchen (active early 12th century), prevailed to the Ming period when the decorative design transferred onto ceramics and lacquerwork. By the mid Ming dynasty, the number of boys multiplied to form the 'hundred boys' theme thus providing an auspicious imagery of fraternity. Lacquer objects with this amusing subject remained popular in the Qing dynasty, and lacquer vessels in 16th-century style were produced for the court. A related lacquer box and cover with this theme and a Qianlong mark in the National Palace, Beijing, is illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, vol. 8, no. 168.

The structure of the present lot is extremely rare, and no other example of exact form appears to be published. Compare, instead, two closely related carved lacquer building-form incense boxes, the first carved as a two-storey palace in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo Qiqi Quanji, vol. 6, Beijing, 1993, pl. 217, catalogued as a incense box; and the other, an elongated box shaped as a building with a roof terrace, illustrated in Carved Lacquer in the Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, 1985, pl. 363.