Pen Box with a Visit to a Sage

Cover and sliding compartment with rounded ends. The top is decorated in horizontal format with three cartouches containing figural vignettes. In the center, a white bearded sage is seated with his disciples, one of whom is female. The cartouches at right and left each feature a young woman in European dress with a naked baby, a white bearded man, and a female attendant. The sides are decorated with a continuous landscape with multiple bridges and hunters. The base and compartment are decorated with gold arabesque on a red ground. The inscription, written in gold on the top, was used as a punning signature by several artists from the late seventeenth to late nineteenth century.