This wonderful Burmese Lacquerware Box is beautifully made. It depicts the elephant on top with the people carrying items, most likely for the royal family.  Decorating the sides is what appears to be panthers, with jungle foliage on the sides as well as on the top.  The inside is done in red and the bottom is black with a note from the original giver.  This lacquerware box is dated 1922, Christmas, indicating when it was brought to the United States.  This is important as items imported from Burma from 2003 on are consideder embargoed goods.  This is truly a rare find for collectors of Burmese items.  This beautiful Burmese box measures 8 3/4" x 5 3/8" x 2 1/8".  The box itself is 1 1/2 inches deep and the lid is 3/4 inches deep.  There is minor damage to the edges but nothing that detracts from the overall beauty.  Also, the lid sits a little wobbly showing this is indeed a hand crafted piece.

 

About Lacquerware...

 

Lacquerware are objects decoratively covered with lacquer.  The lacquer is sometimes inlaid or carved.  Lacquerware includes boxes, tableware and even coffins painted with lacquer in cultures mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere.

 

Yun-de is lacquerware in Burmese, and the art is called Pan yun.  The lacquer is the sap tapped from the varnish tree Melanorrhoea usitatissima or Thitsee that grows wild in the forests of Myanma (formerly Burma).  It is straw-coloured but turns black on exposure to air.  When brushed in or coated on, it forms a hard glossy smooth surface resistant to a degree effects of exposure to moisture or heat.

 

The art of achieving certain tonal qualities of colour is a closely guarded secret and it has been said that a master will not impart this secret even to his wife and only to the most trusted of his sons. The alternating flower patterns at the base on this piece are in the style referred to as shwei-gyin-khat and the main design depicts scenes from the royal court. Naturally there is a fair degree of ware on such an old piece and chips and scratches are present. It is a rare item, with great character and would serve as a decorative piece with a fascinating history.

 

Lacquerware was used to take fruit and other offerings to temples. This vessel was most likely used for religious and ceremonial purposes, for people to carry food to the monastery.  It may also have been used as a rice container or a royal food container. Original lacquer is both inside and outside.

Lacquerware is perhaps the most distinctive and traditional of all Myanmar Burma handicrafts and the most widely produced and used.  Lacquer ware was long a favorite of royalty for storing documents and precious jewelries.  Common households employed lacquer ware for everyday use such as keeping betel nuts and leaves or as soup bowls.