Antique Chinese Leaf Form Cricket Cage Cricket Box Late Qing or Early Republic

Description

From a Tucson, Arizona collector's estate:
Antique Chinese cricket box or cricket cage. Measures 4¾ inches in overall length and 1
½ inches in height.
Lovely painted scenes in the style of Famille Rose. Appears to show two noblemen accompanied by their servants.
Crickets are symbolic of success and family size in China. To wish someone to have a family like crickets was to wish them success. Keeping crickets as pets emerged in China in early antiquity. Crickets were kept for their "songs".
In the film
The Last Emperor
, you could see the importance of crickets to the imperial family. Early in the movie, the young emperor Pu Yi is walking through men kowtowing to him at a courtyard in the Forbidden City when he hears a cricket chirping. He seeks it out; the man who brought the cricket in quickly gives it to the young emperor. At the end of the movie, the now citizen Pu Yi returns to the throne he once sat on at the Forbidden City. He reaches under it and finds a caged cricket which he then gives to a little boy.
There are two tiny chips; both are shown in close-ups.
Please examine all of the photos carefully and ask any questions before bidding.
Shipping is .95 to U.S. addresses (lower 48 states only).
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