Chinese Song Dynasty five-lobed tray, lacquer on wood with a metal rim, 11th-12th century.

Lacquer and producing lacquerware had been known to the Chinese since at least the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 BC – c. 1046 BC) era in China. This can be seen in the existing lacquerwares produced, mostly of ritual cups, dishes, and wooden chest boxes with a lacquer finish across the surface. Many of these priceless ancient Chinese or Japanese lacquer artifacts can be found in private collections and museums, such as the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington D.C..

Lacquer production was under way in northern Japan by 7,000 BC, as early J¨?mon were managing various plant resources, suggesting the so-called varnish tree Rhus verniciflua was being managed [1]. In Japan, the art of lacquerware-making came along with Buddhism and other cultural artifacts from China during the 8th century, and "carved lacquerware" came to Japan from Ming Dynasty China during the 14th century.^[1]

Chinese lacquerware box from the Qing Dynasty, Museum für angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany.

Carved lacquerware box from the Qianlong period, Qing Dynasty, 1736-1795, National Museum of China, Beijing.

Procedures

Lacquerware has two kinds of making methods: bodiless-made and wooden-body-made. Procedures of boliless lacquerware is shown as below:(1) Make a clay,gypsum or wooden body as the base,(2)Paste a great many pieces of linen cloth,(3)Dry the linen cloth body in the shade, (4) Break the body ,(5)Take out the clay body or gypsum body when a linen cloth body is made,The above mentioned is the so-called bodiless procedures. And then,(6)Plaster on the finished linen cloth base,(7)Polish,(8)Draw various patterns above.Thus a finished lacquerware is made.Wooden body material is usually take camphor as the inside base.So it needs not to have procedures of bodiless. And the follow steps are similar.Due to complex technology, the whole making period is up to more than 3 months.

Craftsmanship of laquerware was listed the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage in 2006

From??http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacquerware