Traveling Coffer

This lacquered traveling trunk might have been used by a discerning, elite world traveler on the ancient Silk Road. Crafted in China, likely for the Central Asian market, the trunk features an inscription under the front of the lid: “Made by the Ou family of Wenzhou, Xinhe Street, Anning Ward.” Wenzhou, in Zhejiang province in southeastern China, was a center of lacquer production since the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127). The central medallion on the front depicts auspicious Chinese motifs, including a mythological lion chasing a brocaded ball, and the lid is adorned with phoenixes (fenghuang). The decorative techniques used here are called “engraved gold” (qiangjin) and “engraved color” (qiangcai), in which gold leaf, powder, or pigmented lacquer is placed in lines engraved in the lacquer ground; they are also used in the production of Islamic book covers. The design motifs relate to silk textiles from Central Asia, blue-and-white porcelains, and other ceramics in China and Southeast Asia. Chinese lacquers like this were exported to Egypt, eastern Iran, and Central Asia since the mid-fourteenth century as luxury goods and reflect the exchange of motifs and techniques on global trade routes.