GUEST: My father gave this to me.

He owned an Asian art goods store in San Francisco.

He told me that one day, a gentleman from the Avery Brundage Asian Art Museum came in, and... asked if my father would be interested in donating it to the museum.

He said he would love to, but unfortunately, he's leaving it to his children.

APPRAISER: What excited me about this number one, it came with its own box.

This is the box that was the carrying case the container that this box went in.

And the inscription is describing the scene here, which is Chinese boys at play.

The artisan who made this also wanted to emphasize the bright colors.

You've got the lively movement; the bright colors emphasize that.

But look at the workmanship.

This is gold inlaid lacquer.

And it's extremely small pieces of gold foil that are inlaid in lacquer and highlighted with mother-of-pearl.

Just extraordinarily finely worked detail.

The red here is lacquer, with gilt highlights.

He could have used hard stones, for instance, for this rock...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...but instead he used lacquer to depict the rock.

And this was done purposely to show the skill of this artisan in making this box.

It's a writing box.

You really don't know that until you take the cover off and you look at the interior.

And on the interior, what you see is this, which is what's called an ink stone... and this, which is a water dropper.

And this is enamel-decorated, it's silver.

Now, in my opinion, I think this actually dates to a later period than the box.

GUEST: Oh, really?

APPRAISER: Which is not unusual.

Sometimes you would have these that would be lost, or they'd be damaged, they'd be replaced.

But as we look over here on the cover, this artisan trained under one of the greatest artists in Japan, a man named Ogata Korin, who lived in the late 17th, early 18th century.

He was the master of this man, whose name was Ogawa Haritsu.

And he goes by the name Ritsuo.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And that's his signature... right here.

GUEST: Oh, okay.

APPRAISER: Haritsu lived until 1747.

This dull color originally was really brilliant because it was silver.

So this is silvered lacquer.

GUEST: Huh.

APPRAISER: This is all in low relief, lacquer decoration butterflies on the interior.

So this is an extraordinary tour de force of craftsmanship, and that was what Ritsuo was known for.

Because of some of the colors that are used in the figures and the way the decoration is done, I'm inclined to believe that this is a follower of Ritsuo, rather than by him.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Nevertheless, an extraordinary example of craftsmanship for a Japanese lacquerwork box.

And I would say that you ought to insure this for $25,000.

GUEST: Really?

My father would be very happy.