Pair Cinnabar Lacquer Dishes China Dragons Pearl Signature Qianlong Nineteenth

Pair of lobed dishes in brown cinnabar* lacquer (dark red), decorated with two dragons chasing the sacred pearl, above foaming waves, on the back the 6-character Qianlong signature "Da Qing Qianlong Nian Zhi", from China, from the 19th century. These dishes are in good general condition and are of exceptional quality. Signed see photos. A note: some dirt, light scratches and wear of time, look at the photos. * Cinnabar lacquer: In Europe as in India, lacquer is a gum-like substance deposited on trees by certain species of insects, such as “tachardia lacca”. This substance harvested from the tree has been used to imitate Far Eastern lacquers on Japanese or Sinic furniture since the 16th century. The lacquer, dehydrated and purified, contains according to 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 suffices to add special pigments, cinnabar for the red, pine or lamp soot for the black, and subsequently iron sulphate for the black, sulphide of arsenic for green and brown. For the white, mixture of lacquer and lead carbonate (white lead), already used before our era on Chinese lacquers Dimensions Dimensions 17.5 cm x 18.5 cm Reference: G10 173 All the photos are on: www. antiques-delaval.com