Depth aprox 3".
What is authentic cinnabar?
Lacquer is the resin (or sap) of a family of trees (rhus verniciflua) found throughout southern China.
It is an amazing material that hardens when exposed to oxygen and
becomes a natural plastic that is resistant to water and can withstand
heat and certain acids.How to identify Cinnabar
If you have a magnifying glass look for a 'grain' pattern in any cuts that run diagonally from the surface down,
because real cinnabar is made up of layers of lacquer built up one on
top of the other. Signs of plastic are moulding lines, lack of
tool marks, bubbles in the decoration.
Like all lacquer objects, carved pieces have a base that is usually made
of turned wood: it is the lacquer that is worked and not the underlying
material. In the carved-lacquer technique, multiple layers (often
thirty or thirty-five, but at times up to two hundred) are applied onto a
substructure in the shape of a box or dish, exposed to air and dried,
and carved to create lush geometric motifs, engaging scenes of figures
enjoying nature, and lively birds flitting among flowers. In early
examples, layers of yellow and green lacquer are interspersed among the
predominant red to give a subtle depth to the overall design that is set
against a plain background. The extraordinary narrative scenes found on
lacquers of the late fourteenth and fifteenth century, on the other
hand, have delicately carved backgrounds in which different geometric
designs are used to show earth, water, and sky. In addition, in a
related technique, a red lacquer background is carved with thin lines
that are filled with gold, gold powder, or lacquer that has been tinted
black, green, or yellow.