Box - Wood - Lacquered box (yun)

Lacquered Burmese lidded box (yun), Burma, 19th century

This box with a lid, 14 cm high and 16 cm in diameter, is ovoid and flattened, resting on a slightly recessed molded foot. It is made of turned light wood, presumably split bamboo or a low-density wood, covered with a base coat and then several successive layers of black plant lacquer, derived from the resin of the tree Melanorrhoea usitata, known as thit-si in Burmese, which gives the surface its deep black cracked color. The decoration, incised with a stylet on the dried lacquer using the traditional yun technique, reveals the underlying red-brown wood or base coat beneath the surface black lacquer by removing the superficial layer: around the body runs a continuous frieze of scrolling floral motifs with large star-shaped flowers with lined petals and palm leaves, treated with flexibility and assurance; on the lid, the decoration depicts stylized ears of grain with cross-hatched patterns surrounded by radiating foliage, motifs characteristic of the Burmese decorative repertoire. The rim of the lid and the foot are underscored by a frieze of ovals. The lid handle is in natural turned wood, non-lacquered, of a light mahogany color. The interior, non-lacquered, reveals the natural wood.

Burmese lacquer is made by covering a wooden or bamboo frame with many layers of the plant lacquer thit-si, which gives the object strength and durability. The yun technique, a specialty of the workshops at Bagan and Mandalay, consists of engraving the design in the hardened black lacquer with a stylus, then rubbing colored lacquer into the incisions to bring out the motif by contrast, before removing the excess by polishing. It takes several months to complete a lacquer object using traditional methods.

The globular form of this box, its raised foot, and its button-like lid handle are characteristic of Burmese offering or betel nut boxes intended to contain paan ingredients, or more generally used as spice, medicine, or toilet boxes in well-to-do Burmese households. Such objects were produced in the workshops of Bagan, the historic capital of Burmese lacquer, and in the Mandalay region since at least the 18th century, with intense production in the 19th century under the Konbaung dynasty, and then after the British annexation of 1885. The quality of the engraved decoration and the fine preservation of the lacquer, despite the visible cracks of age, place this example in the careful artisanal production of the late 19th century, intended for both affluent Burmese households and export to colonial Europe.”}} necessarily