This rare lacquered and gilt wooden piece is unusually large and elaborate with richly carved images of auspicious animals and mythical creatures. It bears carvings of genteel scenes of courtly men and women as well as servants and attendants. These were probably intended to portray the heavenly lives of the ancestors. Spirit houses such as this were designed to house ancestral tablets on the ancestral altar. They are highly decorative, as would be appropriate for respected ancestors.
