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Chest for Storing Garments
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
This precious lacquer box is decorated with bird and plant motifs and figures in mother-of-pearl inlay. The decoration depicts the leisurely pursuit of scholars in nature and a garden setting. Scholars play the board game weiqi , have philosophical conversations, pluck a qin (a zither-like instrument with strings), and read books. Lacquer chests of this type were used to store garments neatly folded along their straight seams. The mother-of-pearl inlay from shells is a technique that was typically practiced by craftsmen in Hangzhou and other parts of southeast China near the sea.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineChest for Storing Garments (存放袈裟的箱子), 1400s. China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644). Lacquered wood with mother-of-pearl inlay; overall: 43 x 56 x 54.7 cm (16 15/16 x 22 1/16 x 21 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund, 1975.10
