Featured Green laquerware box

This is one of those Chinese lacquerware boxes. The material is kinda soft, dull, and relatively heavy. It is not the more recent (and common) hard resin plastic you see around. The center of the bottom has flattened a bit, likely just from the weight of the box itself (pic #4).

It looks hand-carved to me.



Does it look old to you? What's it made from?

Thank you.

 

I'd say wood...& not a lot of age.........but not brand new either..

 

Dunno about 'lacquer' deforming over time; 'tho it could very well be so I just haven'y seen such, an' I've handled lots of Urushi-ware. I agree that it appears hand-carved, an' it's a bit odd in the all-around aspect of that carving.

 

Sort of looks & sounds like green cinnabar, if they make such a thing.

 

Yeah-- I see some online described as such, but I think cinnabar is by its very nature red. So...???

 

The mineral is red, & lacquer tinted using it is red. I just don't know any other good way to describe the appearance of your piece. I see there is a paint color:

 

as one cuts thru cinnabar you get many levels of the material ....I don't see that here..

 

Yes, agree with komokwa, no sign of layering. Are the top and bottoms equal in weight? Thinking wood with a metal bowl insert on the bottom piece that could be adding the weight you feel.

 

Thanks.

I agree that the layering of typical lacquerware, produced by numerous application / drying cycles, then cut into revealing those layers, is missing on this piece.

I don't think it's wood, though, as it's kinda soft, even 'indent-able' with a fingernail or a hard 'whack,' and not like wood (even soft wood).

So I guess it remains a mystery!

Thank you as always!

 

It may be paper.

 

Interesting idea....

 

I dunno. It sort of looks like that molding clay that one bakes in an oven, applied over a small wooden box. Newly painted blue interior?

 

I think it has some age. Prob not antique, but older than 20-30 years, at least. The incised cuts / designs look very much like the style and design of more common lacquerware boxes like this, so I guess the material is the real unknown.

 

Maybe someone painted it green, a home job. The combination paint and lacquer may not have reacted well, causing it to soften.

 

This looks like an amateur paint job.