SLOCAL Estate Auctions Network

Vietnamese Lacquer ware is renowned for the finest hand made painted and inlaid designs. Vietnam is renowned for careful craftsmanship that makes it’s art uniquely recognized and cherished. Lacquer Manufacturing techniques are thousands of years old and have not varied very much in all that time.

The Real Life process for each piece is months long. It includes carving, sanding & assembly before 16 to 25 steps of repeated coatings of clay and lacquer and hand rubbing. Each piece is carefully crafted using combinations of paint, seashell, mother of pearl, & eggshell, followed by detailed hand-painting and of course even more hand rubbing to attain the mirror-like high shine finish.

The surface areas are painted with polychrome lacquers. The design areas are painted with a special clear lacquer. The artwork is then entirely coated at least two more times with clear lacquer. Finally it is highly polished with wax.

Vietnamese artists use a technique which gives a richer mix of colors and an added sense of size and distance. Using common elements for color (egg yolk for deep yellows) is common.