3/02/2012

Laccifer Lacca lacquer

In 1590, an anonymous English writer described the Indian insect-derived lac process; "they take a piece of the lac of what colour they will, and as they turn it when commeth to his fashion they spread the lac upon the whole piece of wood which presently, with the heat of the turning melteth the waxe so that it enter into the crests and cleaveth unto it, about the thickness of a mans nail : then they burnish it over with a broad straw or dry rushes so cunningly that all the wood is covered with all, and it shineth like glass, most pleasant to behold, and continueth as long as the wood being well looked unto..." This model is displayed in the Bhau Daji Lad Museum of applied art.

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