Lot Essay
A green serpentine box in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts shows a similar technique of inlay with twisted wire around the gem-insets. It is catalogued there as early 19th century on the basis of a box in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, which was offered to the Emperor Qianlong or his successor Jianqing (r. 1796-1820) (Joseph M. Dye III, The Arts of India, 2001, cat.192, p.416).