Dating back several thousand years, the art of lacquer is one of the most ancient expressions of Asian culture, and this publication provides an overview of the different kinds of methods and materials used in Cambodia, China, India, Korea, Japan, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The number of people employed in this ancestral art has fallen dramatically throughout Asia in recent decades, and this book considers the challenges to its survival as well as highlighting the importance of documenting past and modern procedures.

Production, Distribution and Appreciation: New Aspects of East Asian Lacquer Ware, edited by Patricia Frick and Annette Kieser, focuses on various aspects of East Asian lacquer art ranging from the 2nd century BC to the 17th century. Recent excavations in China, the distribution of lacquer objects throughout the Eurasian region, the significance of lacquer ware in everyday life, technical aspects of lacquer production in Korea, and the appreciation of Japanese lacquer in Asia and Europe are analysed in six chapters by international experts in the field: Patricia Frick; Annette Kieser; Nanhee Lee; Yan Liu; Margarete Prüch and Anton Schweizer. Production, Distribution and Appreciation: New Aspects of East Asian Lacquer Ware is published in association with the European Association for Asian Art and Archaeology.

A highly illustrated study into the art, craft and techniques of Burmese lacquerware from ancient times to the present. Beginning with the origins, the book covers process, technique, decoration, design, motifs, usage (secular, religious and ceremonial), craft centres in Burma and collections.

This reference tool covers the technology and methods of treatment for both types of lacquer and assesses current practices. It describes production technology and decorative techniques and discusses the materials used in Asian lacquer.

The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts covers thousands of years of decorative arts production throughout western and non-western culture. With over 1,000 entries, as well as hundreds drawn from the 34-volume Dictionary of Art, this topical collection is a valuable resource for those interested in the history, practice, and mechanics of the decorative arts. Accompanied by almost 100 color and more than 500 black and white illustrations, the 1,290 pages of this title include hundreds of entries on artists and craftsmen, the qualities and historic uses of materials, as well as concise definitions on art forms and style. Explore the works of Alvar Aalto, Charles and Ray Eames, and the Wiener Wekstatte, or delve into the history of Navajo blankets and wing chairs in thousands of entries on artists, craftsmen, designers, workshops, and decorative art forms.

Lacquerware Journeys focuses on unpublished tribal and regional lacquerware from previously inaccessible or remote areas of Burma. The author and photography team spent five years between 2005 - 2010 researching and travelling to visit peoples such as the Gadu-Ganan in Sagaing division, in order to find the most beautiful and rare lacquerware. Betel boxes and miniature wooden soon-okes (meal carriers) in plain black or red colour are found within an area as large as five thousand square miles east to west between Banmauk and Homalin. Other shapes are almost impossible to find, except for a few pieces transported from other regions in the last century or in recent decades. In addition, new research from Lower Burma focuses on and provides detailed information on the lacquerware masters of this region and their workshops. The lacquerware of Rakhine state on the west coast of Burma, its masters, their names and localities of their production are also published for the first time. SELLING POINTS: Lacquerware Journeys includes rare examples of lacquerware never before documented which are complemented by beautiful illustrations This book is indispensible for the collector as well as beautiful introduction for those new to lacquerware It includes the first ever publishing of local masters and names' and locality of production 280 colour illustrations

From their creation in the maw of mollusks to lustrous objects of infatuation and conflict, a revealing look at pearls’ dark history. This book is a beautifully illustrated account of pearls through millennia, from fossils to contemporary jewelry. Pearls are the most human of gems, both miraculous and familiar. Uniquely organic in origin, they are as intimate as our bodies, created through the same process as we grow bones and teeth. They have long been described as an animal’s sacrifice, but until recently their retrieval often entailed the sacrifices of enslaved and indentured divers and laborers. While the shimmer of the pearl has enticed Roman noblewomen, Mughal princes, Hollywood royalty, mavericks, and renegades, encoded in its surface is a history of human endeavor, abuse, and aspiration—pain locked in the layers of a gleaming gem.