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Small covered pot or box in cinnabar* lacquer decorated with flowers and plant arabesques as well as stylized motifs, from China, early 20th century.
This pot is in good condition and is very decorative.
Please note: slight wear and tear, see photos.
In Europe as in India, lacquer is a substance like a gum deposited on trees by certain species of insects, such as the "tachardia lacca". This substance harvested from the tree has been used to imitate Far Eastern lacquers on Japanese or Chinese furniture since the 16th century. Lacquer, dehydrated and purified, contains depending on the qualities up to 80% of "urushiol" (lacquer acid). This material, thus pure, can be used directly as a transparent substance. If one wishes to obtain a colored material, it is enough to add special pigments, cinnabar for red, pine or lamp soot for black, and later iron sulfate for black, arsenic sulfide for green and brown. For white, a mixture of lacquer and lead carbonate (white lead), already used before our era on Chinese lacquers
