Medium: Wood, polychrome
Geograhical Locations:
Dates:17th century
Dimensions: 44 7/8 × 13 × 12 in. (114 × 33 × 30.5 cm)
Collections:
Accession Number: 2021.17.5
Image: CUR.TL2020.25.8.jpg,
Catalogue Description: Vertical wood box with pierced, relief-carved panels on the front and sides, standing on a miniature railed platform with cornice and four removable phoenix-headed finials at the top. Front carved panel depicts peonies. Side panels consist of a column of chrysanthemums. Back panel is not carved but painted with peonies in a pattern that mimicks the front. The entire box is painted in bright colors with a fish-scale motif (perhaps depicting roof tiles?) on the cornice. Object is a Wishing House Shrine (Soh Wan Ham). It is used to deposit written offerings or prayers in a Buddhist temple.The prayers were presumably dropped through an opening in the top, but the strips of paper would have been visible through the openings in the carved front and side panels.