Elegant stationery cases from ancient royal court

The Palace Museum in Beijing has shared a range of photos of its collection of stationery cases on micro blog Sina Weibo in celebration of the back-to-school season. As students are busy preparing stationery for the new semester, let's take a look at some stationery cases used in the ancient royal court. Stationery accessories were usually displayed prominently on emperors' tables, while cases used to hold them were also very exquisite. From basic-style functional stationery case to artistic stationery box, they can be seen in the images below.

A red-lacquered stationery case carved with patterns of twisting branches and lotus from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). [Photo/Official Weibo account of the Palace Museum]