Brass Box with Engraved Poem

This 19th century box, hand-crafted in Northern China from brass, would have been used to hold a woman's makeup. The lid is artfully engraved with a poem. During the Qing Dynasty, women used makeup to delicately sculpt their arched eyebrows and paint their lips into small, red bows. This "look" was sometimes described by admiring poets as "cherry-like."