15in. (38cm.) high, 15 6/8 in. (40cm.) wide, 9 5/8 in. (24.5 cm.) deep.
It is very rare to find coconut-shell decorations on furniture or objects of significant size such as the present chest. Coconut-shell was mostly crafted into wine cups or archer’s rings, or used as inlays to embellish scholar’s objects, as illustrated by MD Flacks,?Custodians of the Scholar’s Way: Chinese Scholars’ Objects in Precious Woods, Chicago, 2015, p. 306.This delicate material was cut and crafted with meticulous skill to create a remarkably smooth surface. The ‘ice-crackled’ pattern was inspired by lattice panels decorating the greatly admired gardens of Southern China, (see an illustration in one of the earliest publications of Chinese garden-scape designs, Yuanye (The Garden Treatise) dated to 1631).