'The buzz around the piece was phenomenal,' said Pola Antebi, director of the Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Department at Christie's.

The box - part of a 26-piece private collection billed as the most important lacquer collection ever auctioned by Christie's - was exceptional for its condition, size and workmanship, she said.

The sale represented a coming of age for lacquer, with prices above expectations across the collection, which fetched more than $25.7 million, Ms Antebi said.

'Traditionally it has been undervalued and I think when you put a great collection of lacquer together, people are able to compare with other mediums and really recognise the beauty and importance of this medium,' she said.

The $12.1 million fetched by the antique was a world auction record for Chinese lacquer.

The seller was an 85-year-old man who had bought most of the pieces in Japan or from English collectors starting in the 1960s, although Mrs Antebi was unable to disclose the price the seller had paid.

The box may have been used in the palace or been given to a nobleman, Buddhist temple or foreign dignitary, she said. Japanese Shoguns had received gifts of lacquer ware. It has a wooden core covered by layer upon layer of lacquer - sap from a lacquer tree dyed cinnabar red with mercuric acid - then carved with a knife.

Senior Academic Consultant to the Asian Department at Christie's, Rosemary Scott, said fine lacquers were a luxury item because the process was so time-consuming. There could be as many as 200 layers, each of them as thin as three hundredths of a millimetre.

During the Warring States era it was subject to luxury tax, she said. And during the Han Dynasty, it was said to be 10 times more expensive than bronze.

The Yongle period stretched from 1403 to 1425 during the early part of the Ming Dynasty and was known for its fine lacquer and porcelain.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tK%2FMqWWcp51krrPAyJyjnmdjaYJ4fZFoo5qboaqys3nBqK9mq5WhubR50Z6aqKqUYn5zecyio6Whn6M%3D