棺材 - 木 - 中国 - Qing dynasty (Manchu China) (1692-1911)

Exceptional and large Chinese coffer in lacquered and painted wood from the 19th century, from private collections
The lacquer work with Mokumé on such a large scale is very uncommon in a coffer like this. The only comparable pieces are in the Groninger Museum, which also owns a lacquer coffer with Mokumé in its collection (inv. 1988-24) sold by Pieter Hoogendijk and another coffer exhibited by Pieter Hoogendijk at TEFAF Maastricht in 2011, sold to a private European collector.
Export lacquer Chinese lacquerware was one of the many products that the VOC sent from Asia to Europe. The lacquer was manufactured in China for export and delivered in all kinds of formats, such as suitcases, trunks, boxes and cabinets. The first shipment of lacquer by the VOC had disappointing sales, since northwestern Europeans were not familiar with lacquer or did not like the Namban style and were not willing to pay the high prices demanded. The company and the States General paid for special shipments to rulers and high officials of foreign countries. They continued sending lacquer and demand increased. In the early 1640s, when large quantities of lacquer began regularly arriving in Amsterdam, agents of the various European Courts came to buy at the VOC auction. By the late 17th century, the Company found it increasingly difficult to acquire good-quality pieces at reasonable prices. The Company's account books show that after 1693 not a single piece of lacquer was shipped from China.
The production of Chinese lacquerware was laborious, time-consuming, and very expensive. Although lacquer was popular, it did not yield large profits for the VOC due to the size of the pieces, which simply took up too much space in the ship’s hold. Therefore, Japanese lacquer trade represented only a small part of the VOC’s trade with China. It was purchased on a limited scale.
Cf. Oliver Impey and Christiaan Jörg, Chinese Export Lacquer 1580-1850, 2005, pp. 27-29.