A Chinese mother of pearl-inlaid four-tier lacquer box 黑漆嵌螺钿四层盒 17th/18th century or earlier 十七至十八世纪或更早 The cover depicting a mounted scholar with an attendant holding an umbrella within a river landscape with pavilions, the sides of the four tiers decorated with reserves of peony, prunus, orchid, and lotus, all against a diaper ground; the lacquer of a chocolate-brown tone, the inlaid shell of purple and green tones, underside with inlaid mark "Fu". (H: 7in., L: 4 1/4 in., W: 4 1/4 in.)Qty: (1)PROVENANCE: Property from a private collection, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Footnote: NOTE: For an earlier treatment of a box with figural scene on the cover, and sides decorated with reserves against diaper ground, see the example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, dated to the 14th-early 15th century, in Denise Patry Leidy, "Mother-of Pearl, A Tradition in Asian Lacquer", New York, 1996, p. 54, no.5