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From ‘Foreign-made’...

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  • Fig 1 - Detail of lacquered box, Korea, 12th century - Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) - [25.215.41a,b](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/39957?searchField=All&sortBy=Relevance&where=Korea&ft=lacquer+box&offset=0&rpp=20&pos=1)
  • Fig. 2 - Tiered lacquered box with inlays of mother-of-pearl,China, first half of the 15th century - Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) - [2015.500.1.12a,b.](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/40258?searchField=All&sortBy=Relevance&where=China&ft=box+lacquer&offset=100&rpp=20&pos=107)
  • Fig. 3 - Luxury Shopping, 1700-1790 - Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) - [Gallery 545](https://maps.metmuseum.org/?screenmode=base&floor=1&feature=LTczLjk2Mzk0MDIsNDAuNzc5NDU2N0BsbUAzMDg3#hash=18.92/40.7794642/-73.9639511/-61)
  • Fig. 4 - Nanban lacquerware (lectern), Japan, late 16th or early 17th century -Asian Civilisation Museums, (Singapore) - [2017-01084](https://www.roots.gov.sg/Collection-Landing/listing/1394824) Notice the Jesuit symbol.

At first glance, these opalescent, delicate flowers sparkling over the black polished background may remind you of other skillfully decorated objects (see, for instance, figs 1, 2) in collections and galleries of East Asian art across the world. Yet, this box can be found in the ‘Luxury Shopping’ gallery (fig. 3) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), side by side with other European-made decorative crafts. Why is that so? This box was actually made in the German city of Dresden in the 18th century! At the same time, you will see that the story of this box lets us travel far away from there......

The art of lacquering originated in China. As evidenced by some artefacts that have been preserved, lacquer was already used to polish objects in the Neolithic period. Around the 6th century CE this technique was already mastered also in Japan and, slightly later, in Korea. Although across East Asia different decorative techniques and styles were developed, the whole region had access to the Rhus verniciflua tree, from which the best sap to produce lacquer could be extracted.

The exclusive access to the resin produced by this tree made the East Asian lacquer so unique and globally desirable. When in the 16th century the Portuguese reached Japan, they brought back to Europe lacquerwares, among other luxury commodities. Such was the European demand that a special type of lacquerware named ‘Nanban lacquer’ was developed in Japan to specifically cater to the European taste. Nanban pieces were initially commissioned by the Jesuits traveling across this region. For this reason, these first lacquerwares designed for the export market often integrated Christian motifs with geometric and floral patterns already part of the local design repertoire (fig. 4). Soon after, these elegant lacquerwares from East Asia became an unmistakable part of any royal or aristocratic household in Europe.On lacquerwares as diplomatic gifts see Canepa, Maria Teresa. (2015). “Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer: China and Japan and Their Trade with Western Europe and the New World, 1500-1644.” A Survey of Documentary and Material Evidence.; on religious elements see Kaufmann, Thomas DaCosta. (2018). "Japanese Export Lacquer and Global Art History: An Art of Mediation in Circulation." In Art, Trade, and Cultural Mediation in Asia, 1600–1950, 13-42. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. For a more extensive history of East Asian lacquerware, see Lacquerware of East Asia (MET)