Chinese started making lacquer wares about 7,000 years ago. In 1970’s an archeological discovery of a red lacquer wood bowl coated by natural lacquers in Zhejiang shows that China is the earliest country in the world using natural lacquer.
Traditional Chinese lacquer wares are made of natural lacquer liquids from lacquer trees. Lacquer trees are widely planted in China. Ancient Chinese people used lacquer liquids to coat the daily utensils made of linen and woods.
Carved lacquerware originated from Tang Dynasty (618-907) of China. The base of carved lacquerware is usually wooden. The surface of wooden base is then coated with a great many successive layers of lacquer to form a certain thickness. Then, various images are carved on the lacquer surface.
Carved lacquerware is good in material, exquisite in craftsmanship and elegant in design. With more than 1000-year development, a great mixing of north and south China styles of carved lacquerware has come into being. Typical traditional colour popular within Chinese people, such as auspicious red, upright black and so on. It is a treasure of hunman heritage.
