Xie Lan · Yongchun Lacquer Basket · 謝籃·永春漆籃
The work in motion
Xie Lan · Yongchun Lacquer Basket謝籃·永春漆籃
Ready to ship or made to order
Choose “Ready to ship” to purchase an available piece; the buying area shows the live remaining quantity. Choose “Made to order” to place a paid order in the design and dimensions shown here. Making takes approximately three months, excluding transit. Pieces ship directly from Yongchun, Fujian; shipping is shown at checkout.
For other dimensions or your own artwork, send a commission inquiry so we can confirm feasibility, price and timing.
Handmade variations
This product is handmade. Slight variations in dimensions and weight between individual pieces are normal. Listed measurements are sample reference values.
The craft
Five crafts, thirty-three steps, three months for one basket: bamboo weaving (strips woven into body and lid); putty and cloth (layers of tung-oil putty and ramie, dried in shade and sanded); lacquering (many coats of natural lacquer, each dried and polished); painting (gold and colored lacquer for birds, flowers and auspicious motifs); and relief work (raised lacquer-putty carving finished with 24-karat gold leaf).
Dimensions & weight
Overall height (with handle) 24 cm · Body height 19.5 cm · Max. diameter 22 cm · Base diameter 14.5 cm · Handle width 24 cm
Interior: top Ø20 × 5.5 cm deep; bottom Ø20 × 7.5 cm deep
Approximate weight: 1,033 g, including lid and handle, excluding outer packaging.
Xie Lan · Yongchun Lacquer Basket (Two-Tier)
Xie Lan, the "thanks basket" of Minnan custom — the two-tier basket that carries a return gift to a family, or an offering of thanks to the gods. Two compartments, each thing in its place. The open bamboo weave of the lid and the pierced middle tier let you see the bamboo beneath the lacquer.
Yongchun lacquer-basket making is recognized as a Fujian provincial intangible cultural heritage, and Yongchun lacquer baskets carry a protected geographical indication in China. Since the Ming dynasty’s Zhengde reign (1506–1522), families in southern Fujian have used these baskets to carry betrothal gifts, ancestral offerings and gifts between households. A woven bamboo body is built up with tung-oil putty and ramie cloth, coated in natural lacquer, then finished with 24-karat gold leaf, raised-relief carving and painting — five crafts, thirty-three steps, three months for a single basket.
Care: keep away from heat and direct sun; wipe with a dry, soft cloth; do not soak.
Pattern and size commissions
Surface motifs can be painted from a design you provide, and sizes may be commissioned. Artwork, structural feasibility, price and timing are confirmed with the maker first. A commission is separate from the stock piece or preorder listed on this page. Explore personalization →
Ten artisans. Three months. A lifetime in every hand.
Each XIANSU lacquer basket takes at least ten artisans working across three months to complete. The makers have, on average, more than forty years of experience. Their different skills meet in one object: splitting bamboo into fine strips, weaving the body, preparing and reinforcing the surface, then repeated lacquering, drying, sanding, painting and gilded detail.
One elder began working in lacquer-basket making at eight. More than sixty years later, he still returns to the blade each day, splitting bamboo into threads. The delicacy of those strips is the result of a lifetime of judgement: where to place the knife, how much pressure to give, when the bamboo is ready to bend.
A finished basket holds the work of many hands and the intervals between them. It carries both the months needed to make it and the decades needed to learn how.
Meet Guo Zhihuang · Works & biography →
Payment: 100% at checkout. Made-to-order purchases are paid in full when you place the order; this is not a deposit. Production and dispatch follow the lead time stated for the selected version. If we cannot dispatch within the stated time, we will contact you with a revised date and the choice to accept the delay or cancel the unshipped order for a full refund.