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Small vase – China – Qing Dynasty – Early 20th Century – Lacquer on wood and gilded metal.

Small Chinese vase from the beginning (but early beginning, eh?!) of 1900s, the last flashes of splendor of what was the centenary Qing Dynasty.

Vase typically decorated according to the aesthetic dictates of ancient China, a true exercise in style in the oriental lacquering technique.

But what is Chinese lacquer? A thousand-year-old technique, lacquer was discovered by working the resin produced by a tree, Rhus vernicifera, known as the lacque's tree. Its complex processing requires very long times (often years to create even a small artefact) and meticulous care.

Our antiquity has a thin wood support then lacquered with high and low reliefs in red, gilded metal profiling at the mouth.

Wear, patina, but no breaks.

For those who understand how much European antiques owe to oriental culture.

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