Product Description
Burmese Lacquer Letter Tube
Material: Bamboo, lacquer
Style: Bagan, Burma
Size: Length 39 cm, Circumference 16 cm
Order Number: L6
Cylindrical letter tubes were used to hold letters to and from senior monks or officials and documents, such as university degrees.
It seems that the art of making lacquer came to Burma from China. China had been making it for 3,000 years, but it may not have come directly.
Bagan was and is largest and most important centre for lacquer production in Burma.
Lacquer is made from the sap of the htanaung and neem trees. It is tapped like rubber. The grey, viscous liquid turns glossy black on exposure to the air. Objects, which are covered in lacquer, are usually of wood or bamboo, which can be made extremely flexible by interweaving horsehair.
It can also be used as a coating on cane, palm leaf, metal and leather. It forms a hard surface when dry and waterproofs the object and is insect resistant.
Numerous coatings of lacquer are applied. After each application the object is left to dry. The process may take 6 months or longer. A fine piece may have 26 applications. Lacquer furniture can take 2 years to make.
Colour can be applied to it. Traditionally red colouring is used for Burmese lacquer. It is the most distinctive and brilliant and is produced by adding powdered mercuric sulphide, cinnabar, to the lacquer sap. Ocher and red paint may also be used. It is added by hand on top of the black lacquer surface. Then dried. Green and yellow are sometimes used, but rarely blue.
In pre-colonial times lacquered boxes stored royal jewels, letters and Buddhist manuscripts. Lacquered trays are still used to give food to the monks.
Ordinary people use lacquer containers for food, clothing, cosmetics and flowers, in preference to the increasingly common metal and plastic.
Map of Bagan.
Please ask for the price (or make an offer).
