Chinese Box with Sliding Top

A low reddish-brown box with a lid that fits like a well-cut suit.

This wooden box with sliding top is from China, and dates to the 20th century. It is wood. Chinese woodworkers traditionally joined furniture and boxes with carefully fitted joints, often using little or no metal hardware. A shallow rectangular lidded box with rounded corners and a stepped lid inset with a flat panel. The grain flows in dark swirls across the glossy reddish-brown top, and the sides are smooth and plain. It is 9.25 inches wide, 6.25 deep and 2.75 high.

Simple, glossy, and wasting no words on decoration.