QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY

Miniature cabinets of this type were made for display on a kang which served as a seat in the day and a bed at night. A cabinet of this type carved with figures in landscape is illustrated in Carved Lacquer in the Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, 1985, pl. 297. While the amusing subject of ‘hundred boys’ is a popular motif on lacquer objects from the Ming to Qing dynasty, it is rare to find it on lacquer cabinets with sides also similarly decorated. See a circular box and cover of the same theme as the present lot in the collection of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated in Haiwai Yichen, Lacquerware, Taipei, 1987, pl. 155.