Chinese Box with Sliding Lid

Scuffed dark lidded box with two orange painted fruit.

This lacquered elm wood box with a sliding lid is from Shanxi Province, China. Elm is a hardwood with an interlocking grain, and northern Chinese craftsmen used it widely for furniture, chests and boxes, often finished with lacquer. Standing here is a rectangular box with a recessed sliding lid, nearly black and worn through to brown at the edges. Two orange red painted shapes resembling fruit sit on the front. The paint is chipped, and the corners show dents and rubbing. It is 7.25 inches wide, 13.5 deep, 5.75 high and 0.12 in diameter.

Battered, charming and painted with pride.