Edo period (1615-1868), 19th century Rectangular with lobed corners and decorated in red and black lacquer in tsuishu style with a scholar and his attendant beneath a pine tree under a full moon, the details carved in low relief on a red ground carved with three registers of geometric patterns representing the starry sky, rough seas, and rolling waves, all in finely incised lines, the borders pierce carved with scrolling vines and auspicious emblems, revealing the red ground beneath, the underside of the cover decorated with a phoenix in flight above a paulownia tree in chinkin-bori on a glossy black ground, the interior of the box fitted with a rectangular inkstone and a brass water dropper cast as a shishi 11 x 8 3/8 x 2in (28 x 21.3 x 5cm)