Lacquerware

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Lacquerware box from the Qing Dynasty, Museum für angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany.

Carved lacquerware box from the Qianlong period, Qing Dynasty, 1736-1795, National Museum of China, Beijing.

Lacquerware is objects which are decoratively covered with lacquer which is sometimes inlaid or carved. Lacquerware includes boxes, tableware and even coffins painted with lacquer in cultures mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere.

1 Burmese lacquerware
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Burmese lacquerware

Yun-de is lacquerware in Burmese, and the art is called Pan yun. The lacquer is the sap tapped from the varnish tree Melanorrhoea usitatissima or Thitsee that grows wild in the forests of Myanmar (formerly Burma).^[1] It is straw-coloured but turns black on exposure to air. When brushed in or coated on, it forms a hard glossy smooth surface resistant to a degree effects of exposure to moisture or heat.

[edit] Manufacture and design

Burmese lacquerware - a private collection

Lacquer vessels, boxes and trays have a coiled or woven bamboostrip base often mixed with horsehair, and the thitsee may be mixed with ashes or sawdust to form a putty-like substance called thayo which can be scuplted. The object is coated layer upon layer with thitsee and thayo to make a smooth surface, polished and engraved with intricate designs, commonly using red, green and yellow colours on a red or black background. Shwezawa is a distinctive form in its use of gold leaf to fill in the designs on a black background.^[2]^[3]

Palace scenes, scenes from the Jataka tales, and the signs of the Burmese Zodiac are popular designs and some vessels may be encrusted with glass mosaic or semi-precious stones in gold relief.^[3] The objects are all handmade and the designs and engraving done free-hand. It may take three to four months to finish a small vessel but perhaps over a year for a larger piece. The finished product is a result of teamwork and not crafted by a single person.^[2]

[edit] Forms

The most distinctive vessel is probably a single-bowl food-carrier on a stem and a spired lid for monks called hsun ok. Lahpet ok is a shallow dish with a lid and has a number of compartments for serving lahpet (pickled tea) with its various accompaniments. Stackable food-carriers fastened with a single handle or hsun gyaink are usually plain red or black. Daunglahn are low tables for meals and may be simple broad based or have three curved feet in animal or floral designs with a lid. Water carafes or yeidagaung with a cup doubling as a lid, and vases are also among lacquerware still in use in monasteries. ^[2]^[3]

Various round boxes with lids, small and large, are known as Yun-It including ones for paan (betel boxes) called Kun-It. Yun titta are rectangular boxes for storing various articles including peisa or palm leaf manuscripts when they are called sadaik titta. Small trays with a stem with or without a lid are known as kalat for serving delicacies or offering flowers to royalty or the Buddha. Theatrical troupes and musicians have their lacquerware in costumes, masks, head-dresses, and musical instruments, some of them stored and carried in lacquer trunks.^[3] Small polygonal tables and screens are also made for the tourist trade today.

[edit] Industry

Bagan is the major centre for the lacquerware industry where the handicraft has been established for nearly two centuries, and still practised in the traditional manner. Here a government school of lacquerware was founded in the 1920s. Since plastics, porcelain and metal have superseded lacquer in most everyday utensils, it is today manufactured in large workshops mainly for tourists who come to see the ancient temples of Bagan. At the village of Kyaukka near Monywa in the Chindwin valley, however, sturdy lacquer utensils are still produced for everyday use mainly in plain black.^[2]