LACQUER work is an object of toys and snuff-boxes, or an article of furniture, or hardware goods which, by a certain process, has been overlaid with a peculiar kind of varnish, imparting a lasting lustre. This varnish is applied more especially upon a thin and carefully prepared wood, most commonly the cypress. Its base is a resin that exudes, or is extracted by incision from certain trees. In China, the varnish tree, called tsi, seems to be the "Augia Sinensis;" while in Japan it is the "Rhus vernix;" its resin is called "Urusi-no-Ki." Some other plants, such as "Rhus succedaneum," "Elceococcus vernicia;" "Melanoroea usitata" and "Dryandra cordata," also yield a gum-lac, employed not only in China and Japan, but also in Annam, India and Persia.

The process of lacquering, at least as practised in China, is as follows. The wood, when smoothly planed, is covered with a sheet of thin paper or silk gauze, over which is spread a thick coating, made of powdered red sandstone and buffalo's gall. This is allowed to dry, after which it is polished and rubbed with wax, or else it receives a wash of gum-water, holding chalk in solution. The varnish is laid on with a flat brush, and the article is placed in a damp drying-room, whence it passes into the hands of a workman, who moistens and again polishes it with a piece of very fine-grained soft clay slate, or with the stalks of the horse-tail or shave-grass. It then receives a second coating of lacquer, and when dry is once more polished. These operations are repeated until the surface becomes perfectly smooth and lustrous. There are never applied less than three coatings, but seldom more than eighteen, though some old Chinese and some Japan ware are said to have received upwards of twenty. As regards China, this seems quite exceptional, for there is in the Louvre a piece with the legend lou tinsg, that is, "six coatings, implying that even so many are remarkable and unusual enough to be worthy of special mention.

The piece has then to be painted. The sketch is drawn with a brush dipped in white lead, and then with a graver, after which the design is finally traced over with a pigment of orpiment or vermilion, diluted in a solution of glue. The lines are done over with Kwang-si lac rendered liquid by camphor, and arc then gilded. The reliefs are obtained with thick Kwang-si gum lac, while that of Fo-Kien's is used for the final touching up.

From the painter's studio, the piece is transferred to the cabinet-maker, who mounts it, and thence to the ornamental locksmith, by whom it is finished.

White or silver lacquer is made of Kwang-si or Hoa-kin-tsi lacquer mixed with silver-leaf, and rendered liquid by means of camphor. This lacquer may be painted in five colours, red (native cinnabar), rose (carthamus tin-torius), green (orpiment and indigo, or to-kao), violet (calcined colcothar), yellow (orpiment).

Japanese lacquer-ware far surpasses even the finest Chinese specimens in delicacy and finish. It moreover possesses an unexplained property - a hardness enabling it to resist rough usage without being scratched, and to endure high temperatures. Lastly, its polish is the most perfect known. Hence it will be seen that in order to determine the origin of lacquered objects, we should first study their workmanship, and then more especially their style of art, for here arc to be detected the differences already referred to between the Chinese, Japanese, Cochin-Chinese, Persian, Indian, and other wares.

But before descending to these details, it will be important to determine the principal varieties of lacquer work in general. These we shall take in the order of their excellence.

Lacquer on Gold GROUND. This is at once the oldest and the most highly esteemed. In the eighteenth century it commanded the highest prices, because it was known that the finest specimens reached Europe only through the superintendents of the Dutch factory, who received them as gifts for services rendered in their official relations with the Japanese princes. This variety has generally the warm and dead tone of the native metal. On the luminous surface are raised in relief meanders of flowers and foliage, scenes with figures and delicate network sparkling like burnished carvings. Occasionally blended with silver, the deadened gold ground assumes a soft and pearly tone, in powerful contrast with the red, green, and yellow tints in relief. Still further to heighten the richness of the whole, prominent cubes of burnished gold, and of silver, bright or blued like steel, stand out in squares as might native crystals in the matrix. The only artificial colours employed to increase the effect, are black, vermilion and pale green, applied very sparingly.

Lacquer-ware of this description is nearly always on a small scale, and the only specimens of furniture we are able to cite are some rare cabinets with microscopic little drawers. Boxes assume the most eccentric forms - a figure in a crouching attitude, a purse, a fan, screen, fruit, or leaves. Most frequently under the lid, is an "obturateur," or sort of shallow tray, richly ornamented, concealing numerous boxes of geometrical form, so disposed as to fill the whole space inside. These cannot be extracted without removing one of them by means of a round hole opening downwards and admitting the tip of the little finger. This, once removed, the others are easily drawn out.

This description of gold-work in wood is restricted to the adornment of sumptuous apartments, and could scarcely serve any other purpose when transplanted to the West It seems to serve as the complement of Louis XVI. suites, when disposed on etageres. Lacquer-work, such as the specimens in the collection of Marie-Antoinette, is alone capable of enduring the neighbourhood of the chasings of Gouthiere.