Boîte contenant des peignes

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This dry-lacquer box (tuotai), has a rounded, “horseshoe”-shaped end characteristic of various types of presentation box placed in a lian, a kind of toiletry kit. This one still contains four combs in sculpted wood. The stylised, silver-incrusted floral decoration on the lid was characteristic of this kind of box. The dry lacquer technique, which became commonly used in the Eastern Han era (AD 25-220), and the red decoration over a black ground, in a sparser but freer style than on the lian cosmetics box (MC 10015), suggest a later date.
Numerous “horseshoe”-shaped boxes have been discovered in the Changsha (Hunan) area, where they were probably made. Specialists often date those with incrusted silver decorations to the Eastern Han period, such as a box found at Daiye in Laixi county (Shandong), today in the National Museum of China, Beijing, and another in the collections of the Linden Museum, Stuttgart.
These lacquer boxes of various shapes contained in a lian made of the same material, characteristic of the luxury craftsmanship of southern China, were exported to the farthest regions of the empire, such as the Lelang commandery in northern Korea.
Wooden combs with various sizes of teeth are frequently found in Han era tombs, some in “horseshoe” boxes or in lian with multiple boxes. In the region of Changsha alone, a bamboo box containing a comb, among other objects, was found at Zuojiagong near Changsha, and another was discovered in 1953-54 in a tomb outside the city walls. Similar combs are in Western collections, including the Dr. Paul Singer Collection and the Meidaozhai Collection.