PROPERTY FROM THE ROBERT W. AND MEE-DIN MOORE COLLECTION A LARGE MOTHER-OF-PEARL BLACK LACQUER RECTANGULAR DOCUMENT BOX AND COVER17th century Decorated to the flat cover in the Ming tradition with a large ogival cartouche reserved on a simple flower-head cell ground, the cartouche with numerous elegant gentleman and attendants dispersed in a garden courtyard setting with a pine framing the scene amidst clouds, with further ogival cartouches with figural scenes that run between the box sides and cover on all sides, the interior and base black lacquered. 16 x 12 1/4 x 5 15/16in (40.5 x 31 x 13.5cm) 十七世紀 黑漆嵌螺鈿庭院雅集圖長方蓋盒 For a smaller box and cover with a similarly-shaped cartouche and ground inlay but with a different central scene of a seated female musician, see , London, 7 November 2013, lot 304, which clearly is the mid-Ming dynasty forerunner of our box. See also the cartouche shape on a tiered box and cover dated to the fifteenth/sixteenth century, illustrated in 2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer , Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 92.