Pen Box with a Visit to a Sage

Cover and sliding compartment with rounded ends. The top is decorated in horizontal format with vignettes of figures and animals set in a continuous landscape. The scenes include white-bearded sages meeting with princely youths; a mare and foal with a sleeping attendant; elegantly dressed young men and women and a white-bearded figure. The sides and ends are composed in a similar manner, with vignettes that include a group of young women in European dress; two horsemen and hunters; and a group of young women in European dress reading letters with a putto and a white-bearded figure. On the base, a landscape scene with tiny figures is painted in gold on a red ground.