What are these small chinese boxes? And how old are they?

Any ideas on what this is? I've heard that these are used for sealing wax but unsure if that's true. Are these also Ming like my other pieces?

 

Annamese (Viet peninsular) 15th century (ish), I think I may have seen this design from the Hoi An Cargo. Could be for many things I guess, rouge, ointment etc

 

That's interesting! Thanks!

Interesting how cheap it is for how old it is!

Shame I can't seem to find European items from that vintage for as cheap!

 

Ain't that the truth! I guess it's due to quantity, the Chinese/Korean/Annam were centuries ahead of Europe in ceramic production, so much so that it was (relatively) affordable and hence large quantities were produced and survived. It's still fairly easy to buy some Chinese pieces that are over 1000 years old. The earliest European item I've had was late 16th century, and only managed to get that as the auctioneers had missed it and put it in a box of junk.