Zither-shaped box with decoration imitating scrolls, Qianlong reign (1736-1795), Qing dynasty-China Archive

Image Number: K1G000131N000000000PAB
Dynasty: Qing dynasty
Category: Carvings
Function: Container
Material: Animal/Tooth/Ivory
Description:
This piece belongs to the drawer box among hundreds of items. According to the “Box Work” in August of the ninth year of Qianlong’s reign (1744) in the “Work File”, the Emperor Qianlong once asked the craftsmen to make hundreds of items “like hand rolls or album scrolls. The drawer was made by ingenious methods.” This may be one of the achievements. The drawers and boxes used to hold jade ware are made of different materials, including ancient books, paintings and zither. The ancient books below are made of sandalwood, carved with ice plum patterns, and are in the form of a cover box. There are two layers inside, one for Peng Yuanrui’s Records of Lin Mi Fu, and the other for nine jade articles; The three painting scrolls on the book are made of red sandalwood inlaid with various patterns of gold, woven with head brocade, and then combined with ivory. They are respectively placed with jade articles and the volume of “Preface to the Poems of Ruan Yuan Linlan Pavilion”; The zither box next to it is made of ivory, and the size of the three pieces of jade ware dug from wood is used for storage. The space for storing jade articles will be three-dimensional, becoming a wonderful work showing various materials and carvings, and also adding interest to the layered space of hundreds of pieces.