Box for Personal Accessories (Tebako) with Shells and Seaweed Design

Box for Personal Accessories (Tebako) with Shells and Seaweed Design

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Boxes of this shape were used as early as the twelfth century to hold personal accessories such as combs. From the seventeenth century onward, groups of such boxes were part of the extensive sets of lacquered furnishings found in the trousseaus of the elite and of the expanding merchant class.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Box for Personal Accessories (Tebako) with Shells and Seaweed DesignBox for Personal Accessories (Tebako) with Shells and Seaweed DesignBox for Personal Accessories (Tebako) with Shells and Seaweed DesignBox for Personal Accessories (Tebako) with Shells and Seaweed DesignBox for Personal Accessories (Tebako) with Shells and Seaweed Design

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.