Rare 19th century Chinese cinnabar set. Amazing pair of lamps and matching covered ginger jar. All three pieces highly carved and intricately detailed with Chinese figures, flowers and leaves. Cinnabar, a carved lacquer is usually red in color and involves multiple layers of pigmented lacquer applied to a piece. Traditionally it has thirty to forty layers but it can involve hundreds of layers. Carving is a slow process done by highly skilled artists who use sharp cutting tools on the undecorated lacquer surface of the object.