Lacquer is the sap of a tree, and has been tapped in China since about 3000 BC. Filtered and purified lacquer is applied to a base, usually of wood, and colored. The red color of the early fifteenth-century box shown here was achieved by using cinnabar as a coloring agent. Lacquer is decorated in several ways; by inlay, painting and incis. This box was decorated by building up many layers of lacquer and then carving them.