ABSTRACT
The great superiority of the Japanese lacquer wares is not only the result of several excellent properties of the peculiar lacquer, Japanese lacquer is not like our copal varnish, an artificial mixture of resin, fatty oils, and turpentine, but in reality a ready-made product of nature. Thus the Japanese lacquer is not injured by boiling water, or hot cigar ashes; it withstands even alcoholic liquids of all sorts, and acids, at least when cold. The hot, sharp, salty soup of the Japanese makes as little impression on the lacquered wooden dish from which they eat it, as does the heated sak. As this exhausts the number of Japanese lacquer colours, it appears that the lighter shades of colour, white, yellow, blue and red with their many shades and combinations, and the light green also, are wanting. The Japanese and Chinese have made many attempts to get them, and their failure is to be attributed to the peculiarity of the lacquer.
