Featured Help w/old (maybe) Chinese Boxes ?

Last weekend found these two Chinese boxes, both under $5 each. What's up with all theses containers where shards of pottery are used as covers-here's a few questions.
1.Are most older manufacture,pre- WWII ?
2.Do you think the ceramic pieces used are old, actual Qing or even Ming Dynasty ?
3. Were they made for actual Domestic use, or are they all Tourist pieces ?
I've seen tons of these thru the years and just taken for granted they were all made for export.
Thanks for the help.

 

its looks like a high end lunch box..

.. Tiffin...

 

It does look lunchboxy Komo. 'Taking tiffin'-never heard the term before. Also heard em called 'Chinese Wedding Box'.

 

It's a very nice one !

 

Did an image search on Chinese ebay, similar examples of both are mostly described as Minguo to export era. But there’s a chance that these pieces might repurpose old ceramic pieces

 

With those pottery shards they are probably 1970s-80s. Those trinket/jewellery boxes were everywhere at the time.
I have never seen an export tiffin with a ceramic shard, it could be the same period, maybe later.

They are old shards. Some of them could be Qing, but I have never seen Ming shard boxes. Yours aren't Ming either.

 

Thanks AJ- Saw lots of em around that era.
Also thanks Shammy-Had never heard the term 'Minguo' before and looked it up,interesting-
What does Minguo translate to in English? I found this-
"As Chinese era names are traditionally two characters long, 民國 (Minguo, "Republic") is employed as an abbreviation of 中華民國 ("Republic of China"). The first year, 1912, is called 民國元年 (Minguo 1st year) and 2010, the "99th year of the Republic" is 民國九十九年, 民國99年, or simply 99."

 

Yes Republican Era, that’s the common English translation, 1912-1949

 

Nice things. Regardless of age they look very desirable. Upcycled retro antique stuff has a market.

I've seen the pattern on the second one is referred to as double happiness.

 

Thanks Chin-They seem (?) to go for a decent price, although there's no shortage of them.