Chinese Antique Scholar Box for Stationery

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The box's clean and crisp lines hark back to the elegant simplicity of 17th century Ming Dynasty. But the very … Read more The box's clean and crisp lines hark back to the elegant simplicity of 17th century Ming Dynasty. But the very faint figural decoration on the door betrayed its later date. This is a functional box, made to hold a scholar's writing needs, with drawers of different sizes to hold paper, ink sticks, water dropper, brushes, multiple seals, carved with the scholar's sobriquet or artistic name, fun names, studio name and the like. The doors are connected to the box by metal hingers, and a round lock plate hold the doors in place. The box has a rich antique patina that shows good usage for more than a hundred years.

Was this box truly a box for a scholar or was it something else? Something persuaded me to look into the figures on the door. The figure on the left represents a scholar dressed in the garments of a scholar from the Ming Dynasty, which had changed somewhat in the Qing Dynasty, especially in the hat gear that was not longer popular. On the right door is a woman portrayed in a welcoming gesture. Traditions dictated that interactions between man and woman were strictly forbidden except for married couples. That made me think that perhaps it was not a scholar box at all, but part of a trousseau for a lady upon her marriage. See less