MING DYNASTY, 16TH CENTURY

Compare the similarly carved red lacquer box of approximately the same size, but carved with lychees and lacking the gilt-metal rims, in the Linden-Museum, Stuttgart, Germany, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, Im Zeichen Des Drachen, Stuttgart, 2006, p. 136, no. 55, where it is dated Middle Ming dynasty, second half 15th- first half 16th century.