Lot 111. A rare inscribed mother-of-pearl inlaid tiered lacquer box and cover, Ming dynasty, 16th-17th century; 25.8cm., 10 1/8 in. Estimate 12,000 — 15,000 GBP. Lot Sold 37,250 GBP. © Sotheby's

of hexagonal form with two tiers and one false tier on the cover, the cover finely inlaid with a scene of a scholar with their attendants in a courtyard of a pavilion arriving on horseback, the sides inlaid with six horizontal bands containing lobed cartouches on each facet enclosing scenes with scholars and children in fenced gardens, each reserved on a floral diaper ground.

Note: The inscription on the present box reads and can be translated as follows:

Hetian jiang Yi Junhua
Workman called Yi Junhua from Hetian

Intricately inlaid with delicate pieces of mother-of-pearl shell, the present piece is impressive for the fine workmanship of the figural scenes and geometric patterns. An earlier box of lobed octagon form, with two tiers and two false tiers, decorated with a scene of scholars and attendants on the cover and similarly adorned with lobed cartouches of figural scenes against a diaper ground, was sold in our New York rooms, 21st September 2005, lot 180; and a similarly decorated two-tiered square box with indented corners was included in the Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong exhibition 2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993, cat. no. 92. 

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, London, 12 May 2010