Square red sandalwood curio box with carved dragon decoration (contains 44 curio pieces), Qing dynasty, Qianlong reign (1736-1795)-China Archive

Image Number: K1D000877N000000000PDE
Dynasty: Qing dynasty
Category: Miscellaneous objects
Function: Containers, stationery and games
Material: Plants/Wood/Rosewood
Description:
The red sandalwood relief cloud dragon pattern cover box has two drawers stacked inside. The upper layer is a jade drawer decorated with calligraphy and painting by Yu Minzhong (1714-1780) and Yang Dazhang (active in the middle and late Qianlong Dynasty). The lower drawer contains porcelain, jade, books, paintings, and even Japanese lacquerware and western snuff boxes. In the drawer, various spaces are stacked by compartments and drawer plates to place cultural relics. In the drawer, there are red sandalwood lattices for displaying cultural relics. The space design is flexible, and the decorative techniques and materials are widely used. It is the representative of hundreds of items in the Qianlong period. Interestingly, there are two volumes of Jiaqingyu’s books in the box, one volume of Zhao Bingchong’s (? – 1814) seal script and one volume of Dong Gao’s (1740-1818) landscape. The volumes are all led by Jiaqing’s imperial pen, which shows that this hundred pieces were collated and added by Jiaqing’s internal government. It reflects that the imperial family of the Qing Dynasty attached great importance to cultural relics