Antique Chinese Carved Cinnabar Lacquer Bangle — Floral Relief, Circa 1910

Two bangles of carved red lacquer, sold individually, each worked all the way around with five-petaled blossoms and curling leaves standing in low relief against a darker ground. The inner surface is left smooth and polished, so the carving faces the world and the wrist feels only a clean, rounded edge. They date to about 1910 — the last years of China's Qing dynasty and the first of the Republic — and they have kept their deep, saturated red for more than a century.

Carved cinnabar lacquer is one of the most demanding crafts China ever produced. The lacquer itself is the sap of the lacquer tree, colored a deep vermilion and brushed on in dozens of hair-thin coats, each left to cure before the next goes on. Only when the layers have built a body thick enough to cut does the carver begin, freeing the flowers and leaves from the hardened lacquer with fine blades. There is no painting over a slip. The red takes its name from cinnabar, the mineral that supplied the pigment for centuries, and the technique reaches back to the Song dynasty; under the Ming and Qing emperors it became one of the celebrated arts of the imperial workshops in Beijing.

By the turn of the twentieth century, carved lacquer had moved from the palace to the wrist. Bangles like these were worn in China and carried home by Western travelers who had fallen for that unmistakable red. In Chinese tradition, red is the color of good fortune, celebration, and marriage — and good things come in pairs. A matched set of red bangles was an auspicious gift then, and it reads exactly the same way now. Each bangle measures 10.9 mm wide and 9.2 mm thick — a full, rounded profile that holds its own worn alone and stacks beautifully with gold. The inside diameter is 63.8 mm (about 2½ inches), a generous size that slips comfortably over most hands.

Condition is consistent with honest age. Carved lacquer is durable but not invulnerable: keep it out of prolonged sun, heat, and soaking water, wipe it with a soft dry cloth, and never use ultrasonic or chemical cleaners. As with all period cinnabar lacquer, the pigment is sealed within the cured lacquer; the bangles should never be sanded, filed, or refinished.

Dimensions: 10 mm wide x 9.5 mm thick /  63.8 mm Inside Diameter ID
Wrist Size: 6.75-7.25" wrist 
Clasp: none, slip on
Circa: 1910
Weight: 27 grams each