Box with pommel scrolls

China

Not on view

The decoration covering the surface of this box is sometimes known as a pommel-scroll design because it resembles the shape of sword’s pommel. A flowering plum tree and crescent moon made of ivory, gold leaf, lacquer, and glass, are inlaid into the interior of the cover. The motif may allude to any number of earlier poems that evoke the shadows of plum blossoms by moonlight in a night filled with their scent.

Box with pommel scrolls, Ivory, China

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