Lot Essay
The inscription may be read, Yu bi wu fu tang dui yu lan hua shi er shou, or 'two poems of jade and orchids imperially written for the Hall of Five Happinesses'.
A very similarly carved cover with a mother-of-pearl-inlaid inscription can be found on a zitan scroll box in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Imperial Packing Art of the Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2000, p. 117, no. 35. See, also, the similarly carved example sold at Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 23 October 2005, lot 391.
A very similarly carved cover with a mother-of-pearl-inlaid inscription can be found on a zitan scroll box in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Imperial Packing Art of the Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2000, p. 117, no. 35. See, also, the similarly carved example sold at Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 23 October 2005, lot 391.