What are the durable lacquerware?

Lacquerware is a craft that is painted with lacquer on the bones of objects made of wood, fabric, metal, bamboo, gabion, leather and other materials, and decorated with patterns and floral motifs. China is the first country in the world to recognize lacquer and make lacquer. The earliest lacquerware found is a wooden bowl from the Hemudu culture 7,000 years ago.

Lacquerware developed to its first peak during the Warring States period, when ramie tires, the predecessor of stripped lacquerware, appeared. It was thin and lightweight, and its shape was dexterous and versatile. Lacquerware production in the Warring States period, the variety of Qi, the production of fine, wide distribution, are far more than the previous generation. All of this is for the perfection of the lacquer craft, the development of a good foundation.

Lacquerware is most famous in Jiaxing in the Yuan Dynasty, and the main places of production in modern times are Beijing and Yangzhou; studded lacquerware is mainly produced in Yangzhou; push-light lacquerware is mainly produced in Pingyao, Shanxi Province; carved lacquerware and lacquer-filled lacquerware is mainly produced in Chengdu; and detached lacquerware is mainly produced in the areas of Yichun and Poyang in Jiangxi Province, and Fuzhou and Quanzhou in Fujian Province. Among them, Beijing carved lacquer, Fuzhou unfired lacquer, Yangzhou snail lacquer, and Pingyao pushed light lacquer are known as the "Four Famous Lacquers".

Beijing Carved Lacquer

Beijing carved lacquer originated in the Tang Dynasty, flourished in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The main process of carving lacquer is carving, and the main raw material is lacquer, so it is called carved lacquer. Beijing carved lacquer is divided into two types: metal tire and non-metal tire. The skin of carved lacquer is coated with lacquer layer by layer, one layer after coating and drying, as few as dozens of layers and as many as three to four hundred layers. Then, according to the drawing, the knife instead of the pen to carve out landscapes, figures, flowers and birds and other relief patterns. Generally, vermilion lacquer is used as the main color, and there are also yellow, green and black lacquer as the base color. After a dozen processes, such as tire making, blue burning, base making, lacquer, carving, polishing, etc., the technical requirements of each process are very high. Among them, carving is the most important process.

Carving of the knife, before mainly flat carving, now a lot of relief, hollow carving, three-dimensional round carving. Carved lacquer color scheme is also very elaborate, in the past only black, red, yellow, green four colors, now developed to white, apricot yellow, tea red, pink and so on more than 20 kinds. Each kind of work also from the previous single color expansion to the current multiple sets of colors. Because the carved lacquer is durable, moisture-proof, heat-resistant, acid- and alkali-resistant, non-deformable, easy to collect, etc., it is widely loved by people.

Fuzhou Stripped Lacquer

Shen Shaoan, a famous lacquer craftsman in Fuzhou City, invented stripped lacquer during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty and has passed it down to the present day.

The most obvious characteristics are: light, bright and beautiful, not afraid of water immersion, not deformed, not fading, strong, temperature, acid and alkali corrosion resistance. There are two production methods: one is off the tire, is made of clay, gypsum and other billets, lacquer for adhesive, and then use the summer cloth or silk cloth in the billet layer by layer mounting, to be dry after stripping the original tire, leaving the lacquer cloth prototype, and then after the gray bottom, grinding, painting and grinding, and finally a variety of decorative patterns, will become a bright as a mirror, colorful lacquer products off the tire; two is the wood tire and other materials tire, they are based on the hard material, not after the tire, and then the tire is made of wood. For the blank, not after the tire directly coated with lacquer, the process is basically the same as the tire.

Yangzhou point snail lacquer

Yangzhou lacquer originated in the Warring States period, flourished in the Han and Tang dynasties, the late Yuan dynasty, the emergence of the "point snail" process, in the history of the production of studded ware added luster. To the Ming Dynasty, Yangzhou lacquerware into full bloom, Yangzhou became the national lacquerware production center, flourished for a while. The conch-dotted wares became more and more prosperous, and the craftsmanship level was very high. With shells, luminous snails and other raw materials, refined into a thin, cicada-like snail, and then thin snail "point" in the lacquer blanks, so the name "point snail". Because the point of conch material than the general stud inlay for thin, and soft, so also known as "thin stud" and "soft stud". The late Ming and early Qing dynasties, Yangzhou famous lacquer artist Jiang Qianli, the production of point conch lacquerware known to the public. He made the exquisite conch cups and plates, and at that time the famous Yangzhou painter Cha Erzhan's paintings compared to the beauty. At that time, there was a good story in Yangzhou that "the cups and plates were everywhere Jiang Qiushui, and the scrolls were everywhere Cha Erzhan". In the Qing Dynasty, during the Qianlong period, Yangzhou famous lacquer artist Lu Yingzhi, Wang Guochen, and so on, and the carving of lacquer and inlaid two kinds of crafts fusion, created "carved lacquer inlaid with jade" this valuable varieties, Yangzhou inlaid lacquer ware into a new peak, forming a more distinctive local characteristics.

Pingyao Lacquerware

Pingyao Lacquerware is named after the palm of the hand that launches its luster. The primer is mainly ink-black, reddish-red, apricot-yellow and greenish-purple, and it adopts such crafts as painting with gold, piling up ancient lacquer overlay, inlaying with bone and stone, filling with carvings and bumping into gold, and engraving and painting on gold to paint figures, flowers, plants, birds, animals, and landscapes in a good and lifelike manner. Its appearance is simple and elegant, painted with brilliant colors, delicate and smooth to the touch, and heat-resistant, moisture-proof and durable, which is really a fine lacquerware. Push light lacquerware, a long history, Tang Kaiyuan years has been famous, Ming and Qing Dynasty exports abroad, after the founding of New China push light lacquerware into the golden period. It is one of the four major lacquer arts in China. The production process is cumbersome and complex, requiring five to six scrapings of the ash alone, and each time the ash must wait until the scraping is completely dry before the next scraping can take place. The charm of the Pingyao Pushlight Lacquerware does not only lie in the meticulous carving, but also in the materials used, which is a natural lacquer - lacquer - that flows out of the bark of the lacquer trees that are widely distributed on the Loess Plateau.