Cinnabar or Cinnabarely?

I’ve never really learned how to properly ID cinnabar. I can tell something isn’t cinnabar sometimes on bad modern repros. I believe its production is achieved by applying layer after layer of material until you get a desired thickness. I have an exposed edge here which should be a good lesson on what it does and does not look like. I don’t see layers but I’m not sure you’d actually be able to see them on a cross cut. I’m assuming this is NOT cinnabar. We all know about assuming though. Can anyone confirm this is not cinnabar? Looks like a hardened foam kind of. Not sure what it actually is. Doesn’t strike me as resin but it surely could be.

 

I say not real...

Separating carved lacquer from imitations

Genuine carved lacquer virtually always shows some sign of the multiple layers from which it was created. The best place to look is at gradually tapering cuts. If you look at these cuts with a 10X loupe you will generally see a grain-like pattern of concentric rings (Fig. 5). Rings or grain are not generally visible on right angle cuts and may not appear at all on very finely carved pieces made before ca. 1900. Regardless of age, though, virtually all carved pieces show at least some evidence of tool marks produced by carving.

The most obvious clues to molding or casting are tell-tale production marks associated with plastic and other synthetic materials. Typical signs would include mold seams, pits from broken air bubbles (Fig. 7) and swirls within the material. Bases of many molded pieces often have what appear to be saw marks (Fig. 11) never found on genuine lacquer. Molded pieces also tend to lack the detail found in carved pieces but this may not be obvious unless you have experience.

Before modern plastics, the most common way to reproduce carved lacquer was to first make molds of genuine pieces. These molds were then used to make plaster copies. The copies were then painted with thick reddish-orange paint and sold as carved cinnabar. Slightly better reproductions were made by coating the plaster with a single layer of lacquer as a top coating. Another pre-1940 imitation was a type of red putty that was pressed in molds. This material was heat sensitive and often softens and blurs details.

 

You're right. It is a thin layer of cinnabar on plaster, so not the real deal. Early 20th century.

 

There is more helpful information in the original source komo quoted -

https://www.realorrepro.com/article/Cinnabar

 

Agreed. I only see one thick layer, not many thin coats.

 

Thanks much guys! Great resources and insights. Interesting how the techniques of imitating genuine cinnabar pieces changed over the years. I knew this one had some legitimate age so didn’t want to take any chances on assumptions.