The box is decorated in the first and earliest of the three piqué techniques, piqué point. The lid and base are inlaid in piqué point in two colours of gold with fruits – melon, pear, pomegranate – with giant insects hovering above. Luckily piqué work can survive well and we are still able to see the shimmering effect of the closely set pins contrasting with the dark tortoiseshell ground. The out-of-proportion insects appear to have been particularly popular with late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century chinoiserie designers for lacquerwares and piqué, appearing in piqué point on objects from various different European sources.

minimize...