Red Lacqure Ware

Lacquer is a natural substance obtained from the lacquer tree which has its home in china, a country still leading the world in lacquer resources. Much of the country is suitable for growing the tree, but most of the output comes from five provinces—shaanxi, Hubei, Sichuan, Guihou and Yunnan. Raw lacquer is the sap of the lacquer tree, which hardens in contact with air. A tree becomes producctive three to five years after planting, and entails hard work on the part of tapper. He can only get the latex in June and July each year and must tap it in the predawn hours before the cocks crow and sunrise. For the sun would reduce the moisture in the air, stopping the flow of the latex. Lacquerware has a long history which extends back to the remote ages in china. From the neolithic remains at tuanjie village and Meiyan Township were unearthed in 1955 a number of lacquer-painted black pottery objects, two of which, a cup and a pot, were discovered intact and found to bear patterns painted in lacquer after the objects had been fired. They are the earliest lacquered articles ever discovered in china and are now kept in the museun of Najing. Before the invention of the chinese ink, lacquer hard been used for writing. Twenty- eight bamboo clips found in a Warring Staes tomb at Changtaiguan, Xinyan, Hena province, bear a list of the burial objects with the characters written in lacquer. Lacquerware is moisture-proof, resistant to heat, acid and alkali, and its colour and lustre are highly durable, adding beauty to its practical use. Beijing, Fuzhou and Yangzhou are the cities leading in the production of chinese lacquerware. The making of Beijing lacquerware starts with a brass or wooden body. After preparation and polishing, it is coated with several dozen up to hundreds of layers of lacquer, reaching a total thickness of 5 to 18 millimetres. Then, gravers will cut into the hardened lacquer, creating carved paintings of landscapes, human figures, flowers and birds. It is then finished by drying and polishing. Traditional Beijing lacquer objects are in the forms of chairs, screens, tea tables, vases, etc. Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, an enthusiast for lacquerware, had his coffin decorated with carved lacquer.