Chinese Box with Sliding Lid

Dark lidded box whose painted orange shapes have mostly faded into the gloom.

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. Here, a low rectangular box with a recessed sliding top, nearly black and rubbed brown at the edges. Two small orange red painted forms sit near the front, partly worn away. The corners are scuffed and the finish is dry. It is 7.5 inches wide, 14 deep, 5.5 high and 0.06 in diameter.

Faded, scuffed and stubbornly decorative to the end.