Vase Decorated with Boys at Play and the ‘Eight Buddhist Emblems’
19th century
Scroll
Vase Decorated with Boys at Play and the ‘Eight Buddhist Emblems’
19th century
Physical Qualities
Carved red lacquer and black lacquer on wood, 12 1/2 x 7 1/2 in. (31.8 x 19.1 cm.)
Credit Line
Frank J. and Elizabeth L. Goodnow Collection
Object Number
1942.70.621
The image of boys at play was associated with the happiness of having many
sons, an ideal promoted by Confucian belief. Lacquer, a resin usually colored
red with cinnabar, black with carbon, or, sometimes, brown, yellow, or green,
was applied in thin layers on top of a wood, metal, or stiffened fabric core. The
process of coating the sticky toxic lacquer with a brush, drying each layer, and
re-coating to achieve a thickness suitable to carving was laborious, lengthy, and
dangerous. Once dry, the surface was carved with a sharp, V-shaped tool.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by bequest to the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 1942; Goodnow Collection, Baltimore; probably acquired by Elizabeth Goodnow in China, c. 1912-1913
