This lacquered food cover has beadwork decoration as well as gilded motifs featuring phoenix and birds amongst flowers. Such food covers were exported across the Straits of Malacca and used by Peranakan-Chinese households in Malacca and Singapore as well.Chinese lacquer-makers were encouraged by the royal court to settle in Palembang where they became renowned. Lacquerware forms and designs may have been inspired by Chinese porcelain and silverwork. This art form thrived as one of the court arts alongside ivory-carving, textiles and weapon-forging. Lacquerware was part of the lively trade in exotic local products at this time which included pepper, rattan, beeswax, ivory, gold dust and bird’s nest.
