Description:
Chinese export black lacquer sewing box monogrammed on the lid, "JRL" in gold. Lacquerware furniture was typically of lightweight and rather delicate construction. Chinese artisans first created the wooden form or core for the objects, which were most often sewing tables, desks, card tables, gaming tables, or boxes copied from Western models sent to China or adapted from design books. After painting and priming the core, worker applied lacquer (the sap of the Rhus veniciflua tree); the first extremely thin coating took several days to dry. After the first coating had hardened, a second followed, and thereafter possibly a third. In later periods, lacquered objects with as many as several dozen layers became common. Workers mixed one of several pigments, often lampblack and cinnabar, into the liquid lacquer to use as paint; the final colorless coating acted as a protective skin. This flat, rectangular box is covered overall with black and gold lacquer with severe and geometric decoration which resembles Persian-style designs popular around 1810. A related example with its original wooden packing case survives, and is illustrated in Carl Crossman's "The Decorative Arts of the China Trade." The black and gold decoration is applied in small, repetitive motifs and borders of flower punches, small trefoils, and Grecian keys, interspersed with oval, circular, and rectangular-shaped reserves. The box has two silver bail handles; a silver escutcheon and lock (with key) in the center front side; and a small drawer in front with a silver escutcheon directly under the box lock. The interior of the hinged lid has a removable framed mirror with a metal ring on the top, and is held in place by two hinged metal tabs. The backboard of the mirror, framed in a typically Chinese manner, is inserted or removed by means of 2 moveable wooden slots. The black lacquer interior contains 15 compartments: 13 square and rectangular open compartments (one with a silk-covered pin cushion, and 2 rectangular covered compartments with the lids with metral rings and decorated in the same style as the exterior. The lower drawer accommodated brushes and art supplies, and has a surface to prop up when drawing or painting. The plain ivory sewing tools in the box, such as the thread barrels and needle cases, reflect the 1810-1820 period; by the mid 19th century, these tools were ornately carved. The game counters were probably not part of the original contents of the box.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2005.10 |
