Glossy Varnish or Medicine? Floating Definitions of Lacquer in the Sixteenth-Century Exchange Between Europe and Asia

Cheng He

PhD Candidate, History Department, University of Warwick

Today lacquer means “varnish” or “varnished objects”. In material culture studies, its meaning is usually associated with exquisitely varnished and decorated objects made in Asia, which were sought after by Europeans because of their durable quality and appealing gloss. However, it is often ignored that ‘lacquer’ for early modern Europeans was a flexible and even unclear term.

This paper tries to question the stable and widely-accepted meaning of lacquer, which current scholarships often imposes on its early modern past. Drawing on medieval and early modern herbals, medical works and travel accounts, the paper shows that the knowledge of lacquer was already circulated in Europe prior to European maritime activities in Asia, not as varnish but as a medicinal ingredient. The knowledge both mingled and clashed with more detailed observation and understanding of lacquer in the sixteenth century, among which Italian and Portuguese provided early and fascinating discussions (the former had long-existing exchange with Asia and the latter pioneered in navigation in the sixteenth century). The paper approaches this complicated situation by looking at the ways in which early modern Europeans perceived and used lacquer, including the source of the material; how to make certain medicine using lacquer and its medical effects; how different ways of perceiving and using lacquer shaped its definition. Rather than a smooth “discovery” and construction of the “otherness” of the East, the process of knowing and defining lacquer was more like a review of pre-existent knowledge of the material, to which new information and debate was added. It formed a part of the interpretation of the identity and cultural meanings of lacquer in early modern period, which was lengthy and complex.

Cheng He. Currently a fourth-year PhD candidate in history department at University of Warwick. She received BA in history at University of Macau, and two MA degrees in art history and global history at University of Warwick. Her doctoral research centres on how the concept of “lacquer” took shape in early modern England, by looking at the materiality and ways of use of the material. She tries to demonstrate that “lacquer” could be used as medicine, pigment and sealing wax apart from being varnish, which was related to its particular material properties that people chose to utilise. She is interested in art materials and the making of knowledge. Her general interest includes early modern material culture and art history in global context, technical art history and museum studies.