Chinese Boxwood Brush Pot with Eighteen Luohan Carvings

• Boxwood - Boxwood is a hard, yellow coloured, close grained timber. In the 19th century it was often used for inlays, especially stringing, because of its contrasting colour to the darker timbers of the carcase. Stringing is the inlay of a narrow strip of veneer of a lighter colour, such as boxwood along or close to the edges of an object that has been veneered in a darker timber such as mahogany.
  
  Because of its fine grain and resistnce to splitting or chipping it has also been used for treen, turnings, carvings and other small wooden items, such as chess pieces.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• Chinese ceramics, item type - pot pourri and jars 1,315
• Chinese scholar's desk accessories - Chinese scholar's brush pots, other 128
• oriental carved ivory - ivory, bronze and soapstone carvings of Luohan 48