Lacquer cups, like this one, were sometimes given by the emperor to an official as a gift or in lieu of salary. An inscription on the bottom lists the six artisans that made the cup and the seven ...

Call it nature’s plastic: chinese lacquer, which is harvested from Rhus verniciflua trees in the south and hardens when exposed to the air, is a remarkable substance. When cinnabar is added, the ...

A replica of a lacquer drum dating back more than 2,300 years on display at the National Museum of China in Beijing (JIANG DONG / CHINA DAILY) At first, it appears to just be a piece of decayed wood.

In objects both refined and functional, red and black emerge not as mere colors, but as a visual language — one that once ...

In a gray-tiled house along Liyang Old Street in Huangshan city, East China's Anhui province, sits an extraordinary studio. It is the workshop of Gan Erke, a master of Chinese lacquerware and ...

Q: My grandson kicked over an antique Chinese dim sum basket I brought back from Macao. The lacquer and mother of pearl finish is now cracked, and pieces fell off. I have most of them, but some are ...

When light shines on exquisite lacquer work, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, the shells produce unique light and shadow effects, like flowing rainbows. Such a charming work of art combines lacquer, a ...

WE have previously shown 1 that laccase, the oxidizing enzyme present in the latex of the Indo-Chinese lacquer tree (Rhus succedanea), is a copper-protein compound. Our purest preparation of this ...