Antique Finely Carved Large Chinese Cinnabar Box with Blue Enameled Interior Yugoslavia The body and wings feature

The body and wings feature incised / pressed textural feather details

in Japanese--made of native clay and known for its bold designs

if facing it) and a little bit of aging to the finish on the top of the sides (which looks a bit like crackling

pin holes in the upper corners

Antique Finely Carved Large Chinese Cinnabar Box with Blue Enameled Interior Yugoslavia The body and wings featureI 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