Chinese Lacquer Art

Chinese lacquer is the world's oldest continuously worked plastic, sap from the lacquer tree cured into a hard, chemical-proof film. Han tombs such as Mawangdui yielded cups and trays so light and lustrous that court records list lacquer workshops alongside bronze foundries, and the craft's vocabulary of carved red (tihong), filled, inlaid, and golden-painted wares was complete by the Ming dynasty, when the imperial workshop codified techniques in the Tiushu treatise of 1625.

Regional centres carried distinct traditions into the modern inventory. Fuzhou's bodiless lacquer, invented in the Qianlong era by Shen Shaoan, moulds vessels over clay cores then removes the core, leaving featherweight shells; Yangzhou perfected mother-of-pearl inlay, and Chengdu carved lacquer kept the tihong depth. All three entered the national inventory's first batch in 2006. Each coat of raw lacquer demands humidity to cure, so a deep carved piece accumulates dozens of coats over months, a calendar embedded in the object itself, and collectors prize the Qing dynasty imperial carvings accordingly.