Box and cover, carved black lacquer on red ground, China, Ming dynasty, 1600-1640

Lacquer box and cover, oblong shape, carved black laquer on a red ground, upper surface carved with scenes related to weddings; including figures in a landscape and bands of long-tailed ho-ho birds and flowers around the sides, the lower or red surface carved with diapers.

Purchased from a source not recorded in the Asia Department registers, accessioned in 1883. This acquisition information reflects that found in the Asia Department registers, as part of a 2022 provenance research project.
The long box is decorated in carved black lacquer on a red ground, a technique strikingly reminiscent of the bold outlines of book illustration which flourished at the time it was manufactured. It shows scenes related to marriages. The subjects of the three panels are, from top to bottom:

1. Xiang gu sou wen bu. The Emperor Yao asks Gu Sou, the father of Shun, for his son's horoscope, prior to offering his daughters in marriage. Compare: Gu gong bowuyuan zang diao qi (Beijing, 1985, nos 145&146). On both of these carved red lacquer boxes this subject forms the top panel.

2. Unidentified. The presentation of a pair of mandarin ducks. Compare a box belonging to Robert Ellsworth, no. 16 in James C.Y. Watt, The Sumptuous Basket Chinese Lacquer with Basketry Panels, China Institute in Americas (New York, 1985)

3. She bing zhong mu. Tang Gao Zu wins empress Dou as his bride by hitting the eye of a peacock on a screen. This is the most usual of these 'wedding' subjects, appearing on both Beijing pieces, the Ellsworth box, a box in Honolulu (Watt, Sumptuous Basket no. 25), and W.66-1925. See Clunas, 'Human Figures in the Decoration of Ming Lacquer', Oriental Art, 22.2, pp. 177-188, p. 181 for a discussion of this group.

Wang Shixiang suggested to CC that these boxes may have contained the written horoscopes exchanged between families at weddings.

CC 11/5/1987;;

This oblong box is made of carved black lacquer on a red ground. This technique is strikingly reminiscent of the bold outlines of the book illustration that flourished at the time it was manufactured.

The three sections on the lid all tell stories related to marriage, so the box was probably used in one of the crucial ceremonies leading up to a wedding. These included the exchange of horoscopes between the families of the bride and groom. Astrological charts were important to ensure that the couple's destinies were linked together, for if the signs were unfavourable the marriage was unlikely to succeed.

983:1, 2-1883