Tang Dynasty Lacquerware Craft

Timeline

1. c. 700–730Chang'an, Chengdu · ChinaThe lacquer bureau under the Court of Imperial Manufactories in the early Tang inherited the lacquering tradition of the Han and Wei, using mainly wooden and jia-zhu bodies coated with multiple layers of lacquer polished to a sheen. Shu lacquer from Chengdu and elsewhere excelled in vermilion and black, producing plates, boxes, cosmetic cases, and weapon scabbards and hilts, with a division of labor already including body-making, lacquering, and decoration.
2. c. 731–760Chang'an and the two-capital region · ChinaIn the Kaiyuan and Tianbao eras, mother-of-pearl inlay and gold-silver ping-tuo techniques reached their height. Objects such as the Tang mother-of-pearl sandalwood five-string pipa in the Shōsōin show craftsmen embedding thin shell sheets into lacquer bodies with floral, bird, and music-and-dance motifs; the works were brilliant and splendid, and were key items carried by the court and imperial embassies to Tang China.
3. c. 761–800Yangzhou, Xiangzhou · ChinaAfter the An Lushan Rebellion the court issued edicts banning luxury and restricting gold-silver ping-tuo lacquerware to economize finances, but private and temple lacquer workshops still flourished. Jiangnan regions such as Yangzhou and Xiangzhou became new lacquerware production areas, ti-hong and other techniques gradually took shape, and the center of lacquer art shifted from Guanzhong to the Yangtze basin.