CHINESE AND JAPANESE LACQUER
Few pieces of the lacquer of China and of Japan reached the hands of
collectors before the beginning of foreign trade by China and the
opening of Japan in the mid-nineteenth century. Just how few may be
guessed from the fact that the Orientals who allowed over sixteen
thousand pieces of porcelain to be exported to Europe in one of the
years of the eighteenth century permitted but twelve pieces of lacquer
to leave their shores. And how eagerly these bits were sought by the
collectors of the time! Marie Antoinette was one of them, and the
Marquise de Pompadour another. The collection of the former of some
hundred pieces is preserved in the Museum of the Louvre. Madame de
Pompadour was, in all probability, a collector of greater
discrimination. She possessed rare artistic sense, and the hundred and
ten thousand livres the marquise expended on her collection tempted even
the shut doors of Asia!
Lacquer undoubtedly originated in China. Just when, we may not know, but
it is of ancient ancestry. In fact, lacquer as a material has been used
for centuries by the Chinese in industrial art. We can imagine that
lacquer was at first employed as a preservative for the woodwork on
which it was used as a coating, developing as time went on into a medium
for artistic work of the highest order. Lacquer is not an artificial
mixture such as our copal and other varnishes but is principally the
natural product of the _Rhus vernicifera_, the Chinese lac tree, _Ch’i
shu_. Therefore it is virtually “ready-made” when extracted. The tree
abounds in central and southern China and is assiduously cultivated for
its valuable sap.
Usually wood, most frequently cedar or magnolia, thoroughly dried and
seasoned, forms the basis of lacquered objects. The form is thinly but
securely constructed and primed. The surface is carefully ground down
and coated thickly with a prepared varnish. This surface, when dry, is
in turn made smooth by abrasion. Next this base is very skilfully
covered with a layer of specially prepared silk, paper, or a cloth woven
of hemp fibers, all depending upon the size and projected quality of the
article. Successive coats of the prepared varnish are then applied,
each being allowed thoroughly to dry. Finally the _lac_ is applied,
layer after layer, spread on at first, and then added to by means of
fine brushes of human hair. Those parts of lacquer-work which stand
forth in relief are first built up with a lacquer “putty” of special
preparation.
There are never less than three or more than eighteen layers of lacquer
employed, thorough drying requisite to each separate layer. It is
interesting to note that several hundred hours may be taken up with the
preparation of the grounding before the actual lacquering is begun! With
a paste of white lead the artist outlines his design. Next he fills in
the detail with gold and colors, over which a coat of transparent
lacquer is applied.
In the reign of the founder of the Ming dynasty in China, Hung Wu, there
was published the “Ko ku yao lun” (A.D. 1387), a learned antiquarian,
art, and literary work written by Tsao Ch’ao, and comprised in thirteen
books. From this we learn of the following sorts of lacquer then held in
esteem: ancient rhinoceros horn reproductions, carved red lacquer,
painted red lacquer, lacquer with gold reliefs, pierced lacquer, and
lacquer with mother-of-pearl incrustations. Tsao Ch’ao’s erudition
enables us, I think, to trace Chinese lacquer-work back to the Sung
dynasty with reasonable certainty. Another Chinese writer, Chang
Ying-wen, wrote a little book, the “Ch’ing pi ts’ang” or “Collections of
Artistic Rarities,” which describes objects shown in an art exhibition
held in the province of Kiang-su in the spring of 1570. After references
to lacquers of the Yuan and the Sung dynasties he says in effect:
In this our Ming Dynasty carved lacquer of the reign of Yung Lo in
the Kuo Yuan Ch’ang factory, and that made in the reign of Hsüan Tê
was surpassing in its color of cinnabar hue and also in its
craftsmanship as well as in characters of the calligraphic
inscriptions incised underneath the pieces.
There was a notable revival of interest in lacquer-work in the years
that followed the upset condition of China during the close of the Ming
period, when lacquer-work was of necessity neglected. During the
lifetime of Emperor Ch’ien Lung (1736-1796), Père d’Incarville, a member
of the French Academy and a Jesuit savant of note, wrote a “Memoire sur
le Vernis de la Chine,” published with illustrations in 1760. We find
him saying: “_Si en Chine les Princes et les grands ont de belles pièces
de vernis, ce sont des pièces faites pour l’Empereur, qui en donne, ou
ne reçoit pas toutes celles qu’on lui présente._” This, in itself,
stimulated European interest in collecting lacquer at the time.
In recent years Canton and Fuchow have been centers for the manufacture
of painted lacquer, called _hua ch’i_, and Peking and Suchow for carved
lacquer, or _tiao ch’i_. However, the collector must not look for any
pieces of finest quality in the _tiao ch’i_ since the reign of Ch’ien
Lung, who lent carved lacquer-work his warmest approbation. We are told
of a certain celebrated Arabian traveler, Ibn Batuta by name, who was in
Canton about the year 1345 and made note of the excellence of the
lacquer-work he found there at that time. That of Fuchow is described in
the words of Monsieur Paléologue as “most seductive to the eye from the
purity of its substance, the perfect evenness of its varnished coat, the
lustrous or deep intensity of its shades and the power of its reliefs,
the breath of the composition and the harmonious tones of the gold
grounds and painted brushwork.”
Of late years the collecting of the lacquers of Japan has engaged many
of the most enthusiastic and discriminating connoisseurs, and there are
many public as well as private collections of lacquer objects in
America. Probably the favorite objects in Japanese lacquer are those
interesting and beautiful little inrō or compartment box, indispensable
to every Japanese gentleman’s attire in earlier days, and to which was
attached by a silken cord the netsuke, or button, by means of which it
was suspended from the obi, or sash. These lacquered inrō have not been
surpassed for their beauty and are of literary interest.
Of the varieties of Japanese lacquer one may make mention of the
_nashiji_, generally known to Western collectors as “avanturine,” so
named by Europeans from its resemblance to avanturine Venetian glass.
When _kirikané_ (torn gold leaf) is employed the lacquer is called
_Giobunashiji_. The _togidashi_ lacquer is that in which the pattern is
produced by grinding and polishing, revealing the gold ground.
_Hiramaki-ye_ is the Japanese term used for all those lacquers which
have design not raised above the surface more than the thickness of the
lines that trace it. Then there is to be found a combination of the
flat-gold lacquer with the relief-gold lacquer. The red Japanese lacquer
is known by the native name of _tsuishu_, and the black lacquer is
called _tsuikoku_; those in which the design is carved out of the
lacquer-formed or superimposed layers which are exposed by the incisions
of the graver are called _guri_. The _chinkinbori_ lacquer, in imitation
of the Chinese lacquer, is a sort of patterned lacquer, the design of
which is produced with a rat-tooth graver and the incision filled up
with gold.
Honnami Kōyetsu (1556-1637) is one of the earliest Japanese lacquerers
of importance whose work has come down to us. Koma Kiuhaka, who died in
1715, was another lacquerer of great distinction, the founder, in fact,
of a “school.” Bunsai, Kōrin, Yastuda, and Yasunari were brilliant
followers. Kōrin (1661-1716) was the most famous lacquerer Japan has
ever produced. It was he who first extensively used mother-of-pearl and
pewter ornament in Japanese lacquer in combination with the decoration.
Collectors will find few signatures on pieces of lacquer; the work
itself must be the guide.
[Illustration: _Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art_
Chinese Red Cinnabar Lacquer Vase, 18th Century]
[Illustration: Japanese Gold Lacquer Toilet Stand, 17th Century]
[Illustration: _Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art_
Chinese Snuff-Bottles of the Ch’ien Lung Period, 1736-1796]