Lichees, plum blossoms, and other auspicious flowers were common motifs on Ming dynast incense boxes. This one is carved overall with blossoming branches of prunus (plum) raised in high relief against a finely incised ground of "air-diaper" meant to suggest the sky.

By the beginning of the fifteenth century, diaper patterns had found their way into carved lacquer featuring floral patterns. Certain families of geometric diapers were used to represent sky, water, and land. While land diapers were taken from geometric textile patterns, the open sky or air was often depicted with fine parallel horizontal striations like those seen here.