Some observations on the composition of Chinese lacquer

Abstract

This paper summarizes the various information that has been gathered in recent years at the J. Paul Getty Museum and Getty Conservation Institute with regard to the organic constituents of Chinese lacquer formulations. While this summary of materials is by no means comprehensive or complete, it captures the current state of the authors' knowledge, with the information itself and the bibliography intended to serve as a useful foundation from which further research may proceed. Considerable advances have been made in the last decade in the technique of pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with thermally assisted hydrolysis and methylation using tetramethylammonium hydroxide and in subsequent data interpretation methodologies. These have dramatically improved the sensitivity and specificity of organic analysis. Perhaps equally important, these methodologies are allowing researchers to collaborate much more effectively and to share results that are truly comparable and reproducible. As more researchers participate and collaborate, and as more results are aggregated into shared databases, significant new insights into the methods and materials of Chinese lacquer are sure to follow.

Beyond the basics: A systematic approach for comprehensive analysis of organic materials in Asian lacquers

“…Resins identified in studies of Asian lacquered objects carried out at the Getty include camphor, cedar oil, exudates from Dipterocarpus genus (such as wood oil and dammar), benzoin resin, resins from the Pinaceae family and shellac (Heginbotham et al, 2008;Heginbotham et al, 2016).…”

“…Because it contains dodecenoic acid, dried films containing rapa oil have unusually high levels of undecanedioic acid relative to the other dicarboxylic fatty acids (van Keulen, 2014a). Sesame oil, which has a relatively low P/S ratio, is discussed in documents from the Northern Song Dynasty (Heginbotham et al, 2016). Obviously, more work needs to be done on testing botanically verified specimens of drying oils from Asia in order to define the statistical ranges of P/S more accurately and to look for additional marker compounds that might help differentiate oils.…”

Was Lacquer the Key Ingredient for Luxurious Jinyin Pingtuo Products in the Tang Dynasty of China (AD 618–907)?

“…However, at the best of our knowledge, egg has never been found together with lacquer in the samples analysed so far (Heginbotham et al . ).…”

“…Whole egg is mentioned in Chinese lacquer recipes dating back to the Song dynasty (Heginbotham et al . ; Schilling et al . ).…”

Simplified Chinese lacquer techniques and Nanban style decoration on Luso-Asian objects from the late sixteenth or early seventeenth centuries

“…In particular, drying oils have been found in numerous lacquers applied to Chinese objects cf. (Petisca et al, 2011;Moore, 2011, p. 192;Schellmann, 2012;Heginbotham et al, 2016).…”