Product Description
Burmese Lacquer Offering Vessel
Material: Bamboo, lacquer
Style: Bagan, Burma
Size: Height 30 cm, Circumference at the widest point 95 cm
Order Number: MHSL7
This uniquely Burmese, beautifully striking vessel is used by rich families to present food to the monastery. The wide bowl is supported on small legs.
The tapering lid is assembled from a series of circular, shallow trays that fit snugly one on top of the other. They are used as plates or trays to serve the food within.
The inverted bowl, crowning the vessel and ressembling a stupa, can be used as a ladle or drinking cup. Rice, fruit or boiled eggs are placed at the bottom of the bowl and the fitted trays above hold curry, condiments, betel and cheroots.
The vessel may be carried in the arms. More often, though, women carry them on their heads.
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.
Parts of it are chipped.
Map of Bagan.
Please ask for the price (or make an offer).
