Antique Finely Carved Large Chinese Cinnabar Box with Blue Enameled Interior antique work on paper It measures 5 5/8" tall

It measures 5 5/8" tall with a diameter of 4 5/8" at opening and a width of 7 1/2" from spout to handle

and I love him all the more for the wear

an allusion to long life)

Made of sea grass

Antique Finely Carved Large Chinese Cinnabar Box with Blue Enameled Interior antique work on paper It measures 5 5/8" tallI am amazed by the fineness of so many Chinese antiques, and the more I look at real Chinese Cinnabar carving, the more amazed I am. This unusually large box would have been entirely carved by hand, then coated with many successive layers of lacquer. Cinnabar takes its name from the red mineral, a form of mercury sulfide, used to dye the lacquer (while the other colors have sometimes been used, red is most common, most likely due to the association of