Sơn mài · Hạ Thái
Lacquer
Nothing from that village in this craft at the moment. New works arrive each month; the letter will tell you.
Looking for something that is not here — a size, a colour, a pair? Most of our artisans take commissions, and we will carry the conversation for you.
Commission a workAbout the craft
Three hundred years of the same slow trade
Where it is made
Hạ TháiThường Tín, Hà Nội20 kmHạ Thái, twenty kilometres south of Hà Nội, has made lacquer for some three centuries: first for the temples, then for the painters who made sơn mài a national art. The village keeps the original recipe — natural resin tapped in the hills of Phú Thọ, laid in a dozen coats, each cured a week in a damp cabinet and sanded back under running water, then polished by palm until the buried eggshell and gold come up to the surface.
A panel takes a season. A tray takes nine weeks. Lacquer keeps deepening for decades, and a work started in the dry months will polish truer than one started in the rains, which is why the workshops we carry do not begin a board after April.
Panels, trays, boxes, vessels and screens here are signed and sealed on the reverse. Prices include crating, insured shipping and duties; lacquer travels flat and face-up.
The makers
Caring for lacquer
Keep out of direct sun; it fades and dries the resin. Dust with a soft dry cloth, never wet. A touch of camellia oil on a cloth once a year restores the depth. Lacquer dislikes very dry heated rooms: a bowl of water nearby in winter is what the workshops do.
Full care notes