Dragon box in revered Chinese hardwood sells for $180,480 at UK auction
STANSTED MOUNTFICHET, U.K. – A rare Chinese “dragon” box fashioned from zitan, a cherished Asian wood, sold for $180,480 – more than 71 times its high estimate – on November 3 in England. It was the top prize in an Asian Art auction conducted by Sworders of Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex.A Sworders auction house associate with the spectacularly carved and embellished zitan ‘Dragon’ box that sold for the British equivalent of $180,480, inclusive of buyer’s premiumThe 49cm/19.3-inch-wide casket, which would have been used to store precious objects, is composed almost exclusively of purplish-black, fine-grained zitan, a wood so dense, it sinks in