This circular box with a lid is decorated with figures in a landscape. Prunus trees, pagodas, birds and mythical animals, and a mounted scholar are set in a ring-punched ground. Made in gilded copper, it could have been used to hold cosmetics or tobacco snuff.Chinese metalsmiths in Canton and in provincial centres throughout Southeast Asia produced large amounts of such boxes as part of the lively export trade in decorative objects from the seventeeth century.
