Research

An additional main emphasis of the museum, besides maintaining, expanding and presenting the public collection specializing in lacquer art, is research. Through our longstanding deep research in the area of lacquer art, we have earned an international scientific reputation that is globally unique.

In sponsoring research, BASF follows the tradition of the collections from which the Museum of Lacquer Art arose: Both the Herbig-Haarhaus AG and entrepreneur Dr. Herberts provided generous financial support for scientific publications on lacquer art.

Publications of the Museum of Lacquer Art, such as “chinois: Dresdener Lackkunst in Schloß Wilanów” (chinoiserie: Lacquer Art from Dresden in Wilanow Palace” or specific research exhibitions,
such as “Russische Lackkunst” (Russian Lacquer Art), “Sächßisch
Lacquirte Sachen” (Lacquered Things from Saxony), “Japanische Lacke.
The Collection of Queen Marie-Antoinette” or “Schwartz Porcelain”
not only presented the exhibits compiled for the exhibition, but also
led to new findings in research.

The two inventory catalogs on European and East Asian lacquer art published in 1993 and 1998 are unique scientific reference works. One provides extensive background information about a selection of the many objects originating in East Asia; the other gives a comprehensive overview of European lacquer art. The extended 2010 edition of the catalog on European lacquer art, which was simultaneously published in English for the first time and after intensive research work, is at the same time the only handbook on this specialist field.

It introduces selected objects from the museum’s own collection on the basis of texts that refer to the introductory section. All documented works are portrayed according to the latest scientific insights and embedded in the context of art and history of art.