Coromandel lacquer is a type of
Chinese lacquerware
Lacquerware are objects decoratively covered with lacquer. Lacquerware includes small or large containers, tableware, a variety of small objects carried by people, and larger objects such as furniture and even coffins painted with lacquer. Befo ...
, latterly mainly made for export, so called only in the West because it was shipped to European markets via the
Coromandel coast
The Coromandel Coast is the southeastern coastal region of the Indian subcontinent, bounded by the Utkal Plains to the north, the Bay of Bengal to the east, the Kaveri delta to the south, and the Eastern Ghats to the west, extending over an ...
of south-east India, where the
Dutch East Indies Company
The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock c ...
(VOC) and its rivals from a number of European powers had bases in the 18th century. The most common type of object made in the style, both for Chinese domestic use and exports was the Coromandel screen, a large
folding screen
A folding screen, also known as pingfeng (), is a type of free-standing furniture consisting of several frames or panels, which are often connected by hinges or by other means. They have practical and decorative uses, and can be made in a variet ...
with as many as twelve leaves, coated in black
lacquer
Lacquer is a type of hard and usually shiny coating or finish applied to materials such as wood or metal. It is most often made from resin extracted from trees and waxes and has been in use since antiquity.
Asian lacquerware, which may be ca ...
with large pictures using the ''kuan cai'' (literally "incised colors") technique, sometimes combined with
mother of pearl
Nacre ( , ), also known as mother of pearl, is an organicinorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer; it is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent.
Nacre is ...
inlays. Other pieces made include chests and panels.
But in Europe cabinet-makers often cut the screens into a number of panels, which were inserted into pieces of furniture made locally in the usual European shapes of the day, or mounted within wood panelling on walls. This was often also done with
Japanese lacquer
is a Japanese craft with a wide range of fine and decorative arts, as lacquer has been used in '' urushi-e'', prints, and on a wide variety of objects from Buddha statues to ''bento'' boxes for food.
The characteristic of Japanese lacquerware ...
in rather different techniques, but "Coromandel" should only be used to refer to Chinese lacquer. The peak of the fashion for panelling rooms was the late 17th century. By the 18th century, Chinese
wallpaper
Wallpaper is a material used in interior decoration to decorate the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" (so t ...
began to reach Europe, and generally replaced lacquer panels as a cover for walls.
![Miscellany in the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild - screen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Miscellany_in_the_Villa_Ephrussi_de_Rothschild_-_screen.jpg)
At the time of the first imports in the 17th century, Coromandel lacquer was known in English as "Bantam ware" or "Bantam work" after the VOC port of Bantam on
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
, modern
Bantem,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
. The first recorded use of "Coromandel lacquer" is in French, from a Parisian auction catalogue of 1782.
Technique and iconography
A combination of
lacquer techniques are often used in Coromandel screens, but the basic one is ''kuan cai'' or "incised colors", which goes back to the
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
. In this the wood base is coated with a number of thick layers of black or other dark lacquer, which are given a high polish. In theory the shapes of the pictorial elements are then cut out of the lacquer, though in screens where a high proportion of the area is taken up by the pictorial elements, some method of reserving the main elements and saving expensive lacquer was probably used. The areas for the picture elements might be treated in a variety of ways. The final surface might be painted in coloured lacquer, oil paints, or some combination, perhaps after building up the surface with
putty
Putty is a material with high plasticity, similar in texture to clay or dough, typically used in domestic construction and repair as a sealant or filler. Although some types of putty (typically those using linseed oil) slowly polymerise and be ...
,
gesso
Gesso (; "chalk", from the la, gypsum, from el, γύψος) is a white paint mixture consisting of a binder mixed with chalk, gypsum, pigment, or any combination of these. It is used in painting as a preparation for any number of substrates suc ...
,
plaster
Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for Molding (decorative), moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of ...
, lacquer, or similar materials as filler, giving a shallow
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
to figures and the like.
A different technique was to use inlays of
mother of pearl
Nacre ( , ), also known as mother of pearl, is an organicinorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer; it is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent.
Nacre is ...
, which had been used on lacquer since at least the
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
and revived in popularity in the 16th century, perhaps also using
tortoiseshell
Tortoiseshell or tortoise shell is a material produced from the shells of the larger species of tortoise and turtle, mainly the hawksbill sea turtle, which is a critically endangered species according to the IUCN Red List largely because of its ...
, ivory, and metal, especially gold for touches. The mother of pearl was often engraved and stained with colours. The mother of pearl technique was, at least initially, more expensive and produced for the court (who also used screens painted by court artists), and the filled technique apparently developed for a wealthy clientele outside the court. The screens seem to have been mostly made in
Fujian
Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...
province in south China, traditionally a key area for lacquer manufacturing.
Up to thirty layers of lacquer could be used. Each layer could have pictures and patterns incised, painted, and inlaid, and this created a design standing out against a dark background. The screens were made in China and appeared in Europe during the 17th century, remaining popular into the 18th.
The main designs are typically of two major groups: firstly courtly "figures in pavilions", often showing "spring in the Han palace", and secondly landscape designs, often with emphasis on birds and animals. Some screens illustrate specific episodes from literature or history. Typically borders run above and below the main scene. These often show the "hundred antiques" design of isolated "scholar's objects", antique Chinese
objets d'art
In art history, the French term Objet d’art describes an ornamental work of art, and the term Objets d’art describes a range of works of art, usually small and three-dimensional, made of high-quality materials, and a finely-rendered finish th ...
, sprays of flowers, or a combination of the two. There are often smaller borders between the main image and these, and at the edges. Sometimes both sides of the screen are fully decorated, usually on contrasting subjects. The earlier examples made for the Chinese market often have inscriptions recording their presentation as gifts on occasions such as birthdays; they came to represent a standard present on the retirement of senior officials. According to the V&A, "So far all known dated ''kuan cai'' screens are from the
Kangxi period" (1654–1722). Later pieces were mostly made for European markets and are of lower quality, many rather crude.
Treatment in Europe
![Miscellany in the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild - DSC04663](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Miscellany_in_the_Villa_Ephrussi_de_Rothschild_-_DSC04663.JPG)
At the peak period in the decades around 1700 the main customers for screens shipped by the VOC were the English. The original fashion may have been Dutch; it was brought to England after the
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...
of 1688, and to Germany by the princely marriages of the daughters of
Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange
Frederick Henry ( nl, Frederik Hendrik; 29 January 1584 – 14 March 1647) was the sovereign prince of Orange and stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from 1625 until his death in 1647. In the last ...
and his wife
Amalia of Solms-Braunfels
Amalia may refer to:
People
*Amalia (given name), feminine given name (includes a list of people so named)
*Princess Amalia (disambiguation), several princesses with this name
Films and television series
* ''Amalia'' (1914 film), the first ...
. Small rooms panelled in lacquer, "lacquer
cabinets
A cabinet is a body of high-ranking state officials, typically consisting of the executive branch's top leaders. Members of a cabinet are usually called cabinet ministers or secretaries. The function of a cabinet varies: in some countrie ...
", were built in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
in 1685–95,
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
in 1693 with another in 1695, and
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
in 1701. This fashion seems to have died away rapidly after 1700, probably largely replaced in England with tapestries using similar Asiatic
iconography
Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...
for royalty and the top of the market (examples remain at
Belton House
Belton House is a Grade I listed country house in the parish of Belton near Grantham in Lincolnshire, England, built between 1685 and 1688 by Sir John Brownlow, 3rd Baronet. It is surrounded by formal gardens and a series of avenues leading t ...
), and then later wallpaper.
None of the English or rooms panelled in lacquer have survived, but the
Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...
in Amsterdam has a room from the
Stadtholder
In the Low Countries, ''stadtholder'' ( nl, stadhouder ) was an office of steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and H ...
's palace at
Leeuwarden
Leeuwarden (; fy, Ljouwert, longname=yes /; Town Frisian: ''Liwwadden''; Leeuwarder dialect: ''Leewarden'') is a city and municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 123,107 (2019). It is the provincial capital and seat of the ...
, which has recently been restored and placed on display (Phillips Wing). In the Netherlands the English speciality of gilded leather with impressed oriental designs was imported for grand houses around the 1720s. The Europeans were vague on the differences between Chinese, Japanese, Indian and other East Asian styles, and English tapesty-makers replicated the feel of Coromandel lacquer subjects with the individual figures adapted from
Mughal miniature
Mughal painting is a style of painting on paper confined to miniatures either as book illustrations or as single works to be kept in albums ( muraqqa), from the territory of the Mughal Empire in South Asia. It emerged from Persian miniature pai ...
s they had to hand.
Interest then turned to incorporating lacquer panels, whether imported as such or cut down from screens, into pieces of furniture, on a carcass of European wood in "Japanning" imitation lacquer, lavishly ornamented with
ormolu
Ormolu (; from French ''or moulu'', "ground/pounded gold") is the gilding technique of applying finely ground, high-carat gold– mercury amalgam to an object of bronze, and for objects finished in this way. The mercury is driven off in a kiln le ...
mounts.
Bernard II van Risamburgh
Bernard II van Risamburgh, sometimes Risen Burgh (working by c 1730 — before February 1767) was a Parisian ''ébéniste'' of Dutch and French extraction, one of the outstanding cabinetmakers working in the Rococo style. "Bernard II's furniture is ...
, who initialled his pieces "B.V.B.R." was a leading Parisian ''
ébéniste
''Ébéniste'' () is a loanword (from French) for a cabinet-maker, particularly one who works in ebony.
Etymology and ambiguities
As opposed to ''ébéniste'', the term ''menuisier'' denotes a woodcarver or chairmaker in French. The English equiva ...
'' in the mid-18th century, among those who often incorporated both Chinese and
Japanese lacquer
is a Japanese craft with a wide range of fine and decorative arts, as lacquer has been used in '' urushi-e'', prints, and on a wide variety of objects from Buddha statues to ''bento'' boxes for food.
The characteristic of Japanese lacquerware ...
into his pieces, the latter usually in the black and gold ''
maki-e
is a Japanese lacquer decoration technique in which pictures, patterns, and letters are drawn with lacquer on the surface of lacquerware, and then metal powder such as gold or silver is sprinkled and fixed on the surface of the lacquerware. The ...
'' style. Such pieces were sawn through, if decorated on both sides, and sometimes needed to be slowly bent into a curved shape for ''bombe'' commodes and other pieces.
Madame de Pompadour
Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (, ; 29 December 1721 – 15 April 1764), commonly known as Madame de Pompadour, was a member of the French court. She was the official chief mistress of King Louis XV from 1745 to 1751, and rema ...
was especially keen on Asian lacquer panels in furniture, and was probably largely responsible for the very high prices recorded for such pieces, sometimes 10 times or more the price of ordinary furniture of equivalent quality.
After the fashion for Coromandel lacquer died away in the 18th century, demand for screens remained fairly low until a revival in the 1880s, when it revived as part of a general taste for Oriental art, led by
blue and white porcelain
"Blue and white pottery" () covers a wide range of white pottery and porcelain decorated under the glaze with a blue pigment, generally cobalt oxide. The decoration is commonly applied by hand, originally by brush painting, but nowadays by sten ...
. The
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
paid £1,000 for a screen in 1900, whereas one in the famous
Hamilton Palace Sale of 1882 had only fetched £189. In
Vita Sackville-West
Victoria Mary, Lady Nicolson, CH (née Sackville-West; 9 March 1892 – 2 June 1962), usually known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author and garden designer.
Sackville-West was a successful novelist, poet and journalist, as wel ...
's novel ''
The Edwardians
''The Edwardians'' (1930) is one of Vita Sackville-West's later novels and a clear critique of the Edwardian aristocratic society as well as a reflection of her own childhood experiences. It belongs to the genre of the Bildungsroman and descri ...
'', published in 1930 but set in 1905–10, a "coromandel screen" is mentioned as being in a room that is "impersonal, conventional, correct", typifying the style of those who "unquestioningly followed the expensive fashion". By the 20th century screens were again being manufactured in China, and imported via
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
for dealers.
In the 20th century, the famous fashion designer
Coco Chanel
Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel ( , ; 19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971) was a French fashion designer and businesswoman. The founder and namesake of the Chanel brand, she was credited in the post-World War I era with popularizing a sporty, c ...
(1883–1971) was an avid collector of Chinese
folding screens, especially the Coromandel screens, and is believed to have owned 32 folding screens of which eight were housed in her apartment at 31 rue Cambon, Paris.
She once said:
:''I've loved Chinese screens since I was eighteen years old. I nearly fainted with joy when, entering a Chinese shop, I saw a Coromandel for the first time. Screens were the first thing I bought.''
Having rather dwindled, prices for Coromandel screens revived somewhat with the influx of Chinese money into the art market, and a screen fetched well over estimate at $US 602,500 in 2009, then the record price, selling to a dealer from Asia.
[Moonan, Wendy]
"Asian antique sales rocket in New York"
''Japan Times'', 2 October, 2009
File:M-Koromandellack-Wandschirm.JPG, Screen in Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
; coastal landscape scene, with "hundred antiques" border
File:Médailler en laque de Coromandel (musée du cabinet des médailles, BNF) (7179942367).jpg, Detail of the medal cabinet shown above
File:Cina, paravento in stile coromandel, lacca, madreperla, tartaruga e oro, 1750-1800 ca. 02.jpg, Detail of a screen shown above, 1750-1800
File:Albert von Keller 001.jpg, A Chinese Coromandel screen is seen in the oil painting ''Chopin'' (1873) by Albert von Keller
Albert von Keller (27 April 1844 – 14 July 1920) was a German painter of Swiss ancestry. He specialized in portraits and indoor scenes. Female figures are a prominent feature of his work.
Biography
Keller was born in Gais, Switzerland. He ...
. A coastal landscape can be seen in the centre, with floral wreaths on the turned back side panels.
Notes
References
*Alayrack-Fielding, Vanessa in: Feeser, Andrea, Goggin, Maureen Daly, Fowkes Tobin, Beth (eds), ''The Materiality of Color: The Production, Circulation, and Application of Dyes and Pigments, 1400–1800'', 2012, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., , 9781409429159
google books*
*
Kerr, Rose, ed., ''Chinese Art and Design: the T.T. Tsui Gallery of Chinese Art'', 1991,
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
,
*Osborne, Harold (ed), ''The Oxford Companion to the Decorative Arts'', 1975, OUP,
*Pedersen, Bent L., "China, X, Lacquer. 7. Qing and after (from 1644).",
Oxford Art Online
Oxford Art Online is an Oxford University Press online gateway into art research, which was launched in 2008. It provides access to several online art reference works, including Grove Art Online (originally published in 1996 in a print version, ''T ...
Subscription required*"Pelham": Pelham Galleries
"A Magnificent Chinese Twelve-Fold Coromandel Lacquer Screen, Kangxi, Circa 1680"*
Rawson, Jessica (ed). ''The British Museum Book of Chinese Art'', 2007 (2nd edn), British Museum Press,
*
Reitlinger, Gerald; ''The Economics of Taste, Vol II: The Rise and Fall of Objets d'art Prices since 1750'', 1963, Barrie and Rockliffe, London
*Van Campen, Jan, "'Reduced to a heap of monstruous shivers and splinters': Some Notes on Coromandel Lacquer in Europe in the 17th and 18th Centuries", ''The Rijksmuseum Bulletin'', 2009, 57(2), pp. 136–149
JSTOR*"V&A 130–1885"
database details for a screen Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
*Watt, James C. Y., Ford, Barbara Brennan, ''East Asian Lacquer: The Florence and Herbert Irving Collection'', 1991, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), {{ISBN, 0870996223, 9780870996221
fully online
Further reading
*W. G. de Kesel and G. Dhont, ''Coromandel: Lacquer Screens'', 2002, Ghent
Chinese furniture
Chinese lacquerware