The box is painted with natural pigments and finished with vanish. It was painted by ADAPS (the Association of the Popular Artists of Sarhua, Peru). The box pictures a teacher and students in the top register and three children playing with tops in the second register. The box is finished with brown paint and varnished; the unhinged lid fits securely.
These panels derive from a custom in the small Andean community of Sarhua, located in the department of Ayacucho. For generations godparents here give a young married couple a roof beam to place in their first house. The roof beam depicts the living parents and relatives of the young couple; each person is shown working at their own occupation.
The group ADAPS - the Association of the Artists of Sarhua - first moved to Lima in the early 1970s, where they continued to paint on wood, but in Lima they depicted the Andean customs of their village of Sarhua.
