Chinoiserie: The Process and the Connection to Japanning

The fine art of chinoiserie has been in existence since the 17^th century, and it depicts Chinese style designs applied to items such as furniture, ceramics, fabrics and many other valuable antique items. Chinoiserie is extraordinarily beautiful, and it depicts realistic and fictitious animals, insects, people, foliage, structures and various other elaborate Asian designs that can be incorporated into a number of decorating themes. It has become a favorite of antique collectors and designers who choose to incorporate antique Asian-style pieces into their collections and decorating schemes.

Japanning is quite often confused with chinoiserie, but they are two entirely different processes. Chinoiserie is the renderings of artists and designers, and it is applied to furniture and a host of other household décor. Japanning is the lacquering technique applied to chinoised pieces. Japanning involves applying a very thick lacquer, similar to modern-day polyurethane, to items embellished with chinoiserie. Many antique pieces are decorated with beautiful designs in creamy ivory, gold, silver, scarlet and jade, but the colors and styles are truly endless.

High-Quality Japanning

Antique pieces embellished with Asian-style chinoiserie and high-quality japanning are coated with baked-on layers that look very much like modern-day high-gloss enamel - when it isn't extremely worn. Chinoiserie that has been japanned is coated with many layers of resin-based gloss and baked dry. A lot of polishing goes into the true technique of japanning, and high-quality pieces will appear to have deep layers of gloss with the sheen of fine marble, but true antique pieces that are centuries old will show signs of age and wear.

Choosing Antique Chinoiserie

When searching for fine antique Asian-style pieces, look for high-quality artwork. Many will include beautiful hand-painted gardens, dragons, pagodas, floral spandrels, Asian-style foliage and idealistic scenes. They have a distinct oriental style that exhibits very apparent brushstrokes and brilliant graphics clearly designed with great talent and expertise. Many pieces are gilded in gold, and they are exceptionally impressive.

The japanning on antique chinoiserie items will become oxidized with age, and this is to be expected with particularly old pieces. The japanning may also be heavily cracked, but this is also typical of very old items. It is sometimes difficult to tell the age of antique furniture and other items, but with careful examination and signs of age, it is possible to find truly rare and unique pieces, embellished with chinoiserie and japanning that took a lot of hard work, heart and remarkable talent.