QIANLONG INCISED AND GILT FOUR-CHARACTER MARKS AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

Compare to an 18th century polychrome lacquer rectangular box, similarly rendered in the qiangjin and tianqi techniques, in the National Palace Museum and illustrated in Carving the Subtle Radiance of Colors, Treasured Lacquerware in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2008, no. 155. The design of the current box is broadly based on that of a circular box decorated in the tianqi method with similar Ming-style Indian lotus scrolls, dated to the 16th/17th century, also in the National Palace Museum, ibid., no. 54.