Antique Burmese Red Lacquered Hand-Painted Betel Box "Kun-It" With Two Plates

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Antique Burmese Red Lacquered Hand-painted Betel Box "Kun-it" with Two Plates
Aprox. dimensions: 6" x 6"
Good condition! No chips … Read more Antique Burmese Red Lacquered Hand-painted Betel Box "Kun-it" with Two Plates
Aprox. dimensions: 6" x 6"
Good condition! No chips or cracks!

Lacquer objects have been used in Burma for centuries, fragments of lacquer objects dating back to the 12th century have been found in Bagan.
There are three main categories of lacquerware, firstly, those which were intended to bring offerings to monasteries, models called Hsun Ok, in the shape of pagodas and the Hsun It, in the shape of compartmentalised “balls”.
The second were the betel boxes, mainly cylindrical in shape, intended to contain the ingredients used in the manufacture of betel chews, a euphoric substance widely used in Burma.
Cylindrical betel box called Kun It, a traditional model that has been popular in Burma for centuries and which was used to contain all the ingredients for making betel chews. The designs are made freehand with a rudimentary tool, a very sharp stylus, called tont yun, which gave its name to the technique used. See less