Tin Carving Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
Since the Song dynasty, the use of tin vessels has been very common: a range of everyday implements such as tin tea caddies and tin tangpozi bed-warming flasks became widely popular among the people, and tinwork accordingly became a much sought-after trade. Laiwu tin carving is a traditional tinwork art popular in the Laiwu region of Shandong Province; it reached its peak during the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty, with no fewer than a thousand practitioners. Early tin products were mostly everyday utensils, but they were later designated as tribute items to the imperial court, and gradually some tin-carving artworks of high ornamental value developed. The Wang-family tin carving founded by Wang Shihang is an outstanding representative of Laiwu tin art; to date it has seen eight generations of successors.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Tin carving, also called tin art or tinware, is a traditional tinwork art widely popular among the Chinese people. The traditional tinworking craft has a long and storied history: tin ingots unearthed at the Yin Ruins in Henan, a tin-plated bronze helmet with a tiger-face design, and tin daggers, together with a tin vessel of as much as 99.15 percent tin content excavated from a mid-Spring-and-Autumn-period tomb at Wanjiapu, Chuxiong, Yunnan, show that as early as the Shang and Zhou periods China's tinworking craft was already quite mature. Tin has the advantages of being non-toxic, rustproof, moisture-resistant, and resistant to acids and alkalis; it is soft in texture with a low melting point and is easy to work, and for this reason tin art has always maintained a close connection with people's daily lives. Traditional tinwork centers on making everyday articles, though it also produces some articles for offering and worship. The tinworking craft forms its own self-contained system, mainly comprising process steps and techniques such as smelting, casting sheets, shaping, cutting stock, scraping and polishing, welding, burnishing, decoration, and carving; in production, the form of each vessel is constructed according to its practical function. Finished tinware has rich and varied forms, exquisite decoration, and consummate craftsmanship, fully embodying the ingenuity of its designers and makers. Over the course of long development, successive generations of successors have striven to innovate, improving tools, refining processing techniques, and developing new varieties and styles, so that Laiwu tin art has continually improved. Laiwu tin carving employs a great variety of techniques, mainly including such means as relief carving, round carving, line carving, intaglio carving, and inlay, as well as processing methods such as forging, chasing, modeling, carving, and welding; it can produce many kinds of tinware, including ritual vessels, drinking vessels, tea sets, scholar's-desk utensils, and art ornaments. Laiwu tin carving has delicate forms, refined carving and ornament, and meticulous craftsmanship; it preserves the fine traditions of tinware craft while displaying distinctive regional characteristics. Yongkang tin art, commonly known as dala (tin-beating), is a traditional tinwork art handed down in Yongkang City, Zhejiang Province. Yongkang tin art has a long history and has been passed down through the generations. As late as the Republican period, tinware making remained an important local handicraft trade, with more than a thousand practitioners and over a hundred product types. Yongkang tin-art products are mostly daily-use articles such as wine pots, soup jars, powder boxes, and fruit boxes, as well as complete sets of dressing cases used in weddings; they also include sacrificial offering vessels and Buddhist ritual implements such as shaped incense burners, candle holders, figures of the Eight Immortals, ceremonial weapons, and stage props, as well as tin bonsai on all manner of auspicious themes. The production of Yongkang tin-art articles generally requires such process steps as forming, filing flat, grinding, piercing, welding, and planishing; for refined products, molds must first be carved and cast.
Archival Records of Process Steps
The tinworking craft forms its own self-contained system, mainly comprising process steps and techniques such as smelting, casting sheets, shaping, cutting stock, scraping and polishing, welding, burnishing, decoration, and carving; in production, the form of each vessel is constructed according to its practical function.
Smelting, casting, forming and cutting
Its sequence runs melting, casting sheets, forming, cutting, scraping, soldering, polishing, decorating and carving, with shape determined by function.
Five decorative techniques
Relief, round, line and hollow carving with inlay, executed by forging, chasing, modelling, carving and soldering, yield ritual vessels, wine and tea sets, studio pieces and ornaments.
Wang Shixing and eight generations
The Wang family tin workshop founded by Wang Shixing has run eight generations, moving from household vessels to tribute pieces of high visual quality.
Tin from the Shang to the present
Tin ingots, a tin-plated bronze mask and daggers at Yinxu, and 99.15 per cent tin vessels from a Spring and Autumn tomb in Wanjiaba show how mature tinworking already was.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The finished products are finely made, lustrous in texture, and of classical elegance, with an obvious regional style; they are highly practical and ornamental alike.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Tin Carving Craftsmanship · Tin Carving Craftsmanship · Tin Carving Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Tin-carving vessels have the dual character of practical use and ornament: tin is non-toxic, rustproof, moisture-resistant, and resistant to acids and alkalis, so everyday implements such as tin tea caddies and tin tangpozi bed-warming flasks have been widely popular among the people; in court tribute use and the refined enjoyment of the literati, works of high ornamental value such as display pieces, bonsai, and incense burners have also evolved. Although Laiwu tin carving and Yongkang tin art share the same origin, the former being dignified and archaic and the latter light and exquisite, together they form the two main branches of Chinese tinwork.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Ying Yegen 03-1282
- Sheng Yiyuan 05-2674
- Liu Jianqiang 05-2675
- Shi Yan
- Wang Shengliang
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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