Lacquerware

About 5 pages (1,451 words)

Lacquer Summary

Questions on this topic? Just ask!

Lacquerware

Wares made of wood, porcelain, or metal to which lacquer has been applied are known as lacquerware. Lacquer is the sap or resin of the lacquer (rhus verniciflua) or varnish tree. The tree is native to central and southern China and possibly to Japan. When applied to wood, porcelain, or metal, the lacquer gives the wares a hard, smooth, transparent, and shiny surface. True or Far Eastern Asian lacquerware has been used since ancient times in China and Japan. The natural sap of the lacquer tree has been used as a protective and decorative varnish for art objects as well as those used in everyday living. The lacquer is applied in thin layers on the wooden objects or inlaid on metal wares. When solidified, lacquer also has been used as a medium for sculpture. Like porcelain, lacquerware has been much appreciated not only in Asia but also Europe, where it has been collected since the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Lacquerware includes beautifully decorated items, and many that were household utensils provided waterproof and durable service in Asian households. They would have been popular in Asia where wood was once plentiful. Wood fashioned into lacquerware provided great versatility, as evident from the wide range of objects included among the wares.

East Asian lacquer is not at all similar to the type of lacquer that is the basis of some of the varnishes used in the "japanning" of European furniture from the sixteenth century onward. There are differences in chemical composition and also sources, since the English resin lac or shellac comes from a substance deposited on trees by certain species of insects.

Two broad classes of lacquer objects are distinguished. In one category, the lacquer has been applied largely for the purposes of protection and decoration. Therefore, the lacquer application does not change the form of the objects, such as wooden chairs, so decorated. In the second category, the objects are made mostly of leather, supported by a nonlacquer core or substrate. These objects include lacquer boxes and containers. The core can be hemp cloth, wood, or metal, but it is encased in a lacquer coating thick enough to modify the form of the object. The lacquer coating gives the objects a plump, fleshy shape that can be decorated by carving or by using techniques of inlay and painting.

Lacquer objects, including all those in the second category and also those in the first category in which lacquer forms a significant part of the decoration, are works of art. Other objects, such as lacquered chopsticks, would be essentially lacquered. Lacquer as an art form developed in China. There was pictorial or surface decoration and also carving of the lacquer. After the tenth century, the techniques of qiangjin (engraved gold), diaotian (filled in), and diaoqi (carved lacquer) gradually evolved. Lacquer art dates from about 1600 BCE, during the Shang dynasty in China (1766–1045 BCE). Carved lacquer is a uniquely Chinese achievement. It is considered lacquer art in its pure form.

In Japan, lacquer art surface decoration is paramount. During the Nara period (710–794 CE), lacquerware with gold and silver foil inlay was produced. This was considered to have been transmitted from Tang (618–907 CE) China. Makie (gold or silver) lacquer is a unique and supreme achievement of Japanese decorative art. Japanese Negoro ware is also well known. These are objects with a thin layer of lacquer that has usually worn away, leaving a surface that has the appearance of an abstract painting. In Korea, lacquer surfaces were decorated with metal foil inlay during the Unified Shila period (668–935 CE), which was more or less contemporary with the Tang period in China. Subsequently, Korea developed its own style of lacquerware, the finest of which appeared during the Koryo (918–1392) and early Choson (1392–1910) periods, with fine mother-of-pearl inlay often in combination with tortoiseshell. Another area in East Asia that is well known for its tradition of fine lacquer manufacture is the Ryukyu Islands. Now part of Japan, the islands were once a kingdom, and the growth and decline of the lacquer industry actually paralleled that of the kingdom, which began in the fourteenth century and ended in 1872. Chinese lacquer techniques were a major influence on Ryukyuan lacquer objects.

Lacquerware comprised large and small objects from chopsticks, bowls, cups, and vases to coffers, bamboo baskets, and containers, as well as screens and even suits of leather armor. The lacquer vases produced in Soochow, China, resembled fine porcelain with their intricate carvings on wood stained in coral and then lacquered. These were made for the emperor during the Ch'ien Lung period (1736–1796) of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). They were among the treasures used in the summer palace. Other types of lacquerware include the Japanese ware in black and gold lacquer inlaid with gold, silver, and mother-ofpearl. Chinese and Japanese screens of lacquered, painted, and gilt wood are familiar not only in Asian homes and institutions today but also in fine arts museums. These screens are often painted by hand, sometimes by well-known artists or copyists. Korean suits of armor of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, made of gold-lacquered small plates, gilt-copper brown lacquer plates, and scarlet, are prized collectors' items.

Modern lacquerware from Japan and Korea is highly finished in appearance when compared to that still produced in China and other parts of Southeast Asia. The Straits Chinese or Peranakan society in Southeast Asia reproduced lacquered basketry, originally produced in China, for carrying special gifts offered to deities in temples or during occasions such as weddings and festivals. Lacquerware items remain important in most East and Southeast Asian households, although they tend to be more expensive than either ceramics or plastic.

Ooi Giok-Ling