One of a pair of lamps with archaic-style calligraphy

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The removable sides of the lamps are jade plaques in carved wood frames, each inscribed at the top with a group of nine characters that can be read in any order. The various readings are transcribed in the middle of the plaques in different fanciful "archaic" scripts, with a note at the bottom giving the supposed source and date of each particular script. The main frame of the lamps are of zitan, a fine grained hardwood, and the ornaments are of boxwood an ivory. (One of a pair; see 20015.500.5.1)

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art