Also 6 leckar, 6–7 laker, 7 laccar, laquer, 7 lacre. [ad. obs. F. lacre (17th c.) a kind of sealing wax = Sp., Pg. lacre, 16th c. It. lacra, Pg. alacre, laquar (Yule); an unexplained variant or derivative of Pg. lacca LAC. Lacquer is the later form, influenced app. by F. laque LAC sb.1]
† 1. = LAC sb.1 1. Obs.
1579. Hakluyt, Voy. (1598), I. 432. Enquire of the price of leckar, and all other things belonging to dying.
1582. N. Lichefield, trans. Castanheda’s Conq. E. Ind., 33, marg. Laker is a kinde of gum that procedeth of the Ant.
1653. H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., xvii. (1663), 58. Oxen … laden with … Ivory, Wax, Lacre, Benjamin, Camphire and Gold in Powder. Ibid., lii. 207. They caused … a great deal of Lacre, which is like unto hard Wax, to be dropped scalding hot upon me.
1714. Fr. Bk. of Rates, 45. Lacker for Paint or Dying.
2. a. A gold-colored varnish, consisting chiefly of a solution of pale shellac in alcohol, tinged with saffron, anatta, or other coloring matters; used chiefly as a coating for brass.
1673. Marvell, Reh. Transp., II. Wks. II. 243. His soul seemed to have set up a gilt vehicle of the new lacker.
1697. Evelyn, Numism., vi. 215. A sort of fine Varnish or harder Laccar.
1708. Brit. Apollo, I. No. 2. 3/1. Lacquer [is perform’d] with Leaf Silver, ting’d to a Gold Colour, by a Varnish compos’d of Rectify’d Spirits and Gums.
1773. Phil. Trans., LXIII. 326. The best apartments … have usually a broad cornish of lacker, or false gold, round their coved ceilings.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 731. To make Lacquer of various Tints.
1855. Browning, Old Pictures Florence, xxxii. No civic guards, all plumes and lacquer.
fig. 1681. T. Flatman, Heraclitus Ridens (1713), I. No. 37. 241. They have got such a trick of gilding this Pill of Damnation with the spiritual Lacker of a safe Conscience and Protestant.
1863. Mrs. Oliphant, Salem Chapel, ii. 30. The thin superficial lacker with which Miss Phoebe was coated.
b. Applied to various kinds of resinous varnish, capable of taking a hard polish, used in Japan, China, Burmah and India for coating articles of wood or other materials; chiefly the ‘Japanese lacquer,’ obtained from the Rhus vernicifera.
1697. Dampier, Voy., I. (1729), 400. Laquer which is used in Japanning of Cabinets.
1888. Pall Mall Gaz., 19 Nov., 2/1. Lacquer is the sap of the lacquer-tree, Rhus vernicifera, drawn off by making incisions in the bark during the rainy season.
1889. Nature, 31 Oct., 655. Japanese lacquer is the product of a tree, the Rhus vernicifera.
3. The class of decorative articles made of wood coated with lacquer (sense 2 b), and often inlaid with ornaments of ivory, mother-of-pearl or metal; chiefly made in Japan, China and India. Also pl. works of art of this kind.
1895. Daily News, 17 May, 6/2. Rare specimens of the finest old lacquers by great masters.
Mod. Really good Japanese lacquer is not easy to procure.
4. Comb.: † lacquer hat (see quot.); lacquer-tree, the tree (Rhus vernicifera) that yields Japan lacquer; also, a similar tree in S. America; lacquer-ware = sense 3; lacquer-work, the making of lacquer-ware; also = lacquer-ware; lacquer-wort, ? = lacquer-tree.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), *Lacker-Hat, a Hat made without stiffening.
[1863. Bates, Nat. Amazons, vii. (1864), 175. Its borders were composed in great part of … *Lacre-trees, whose berries exude globules of wax resembling gamboge.]
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 24 April, 2/2. The cultivation of the lacquer tree has rapidly declined.
1697. Dampier, Voy., I. (1729), 409. They make very fine *Lacquer-ware.
1705. Lond. Gaz., No. 4166/3. Laden with raw Silks, China Lacker-Ware, and Salt-Petre.
1861. C. P. Hodgson, Resid. at Nagasaki, 28. It is almost as disgraceful for a Japanese to part with old lacquer ware, as it is for an English gentleman to dispose of his family plate.
1669. Pepys, Diary, 23 April. Sir Philip Howard and Watson (the inventors, as they pretend, of the business of varnishing and *lacker-worke).
1878. J. J. Young, Ceram. Art (1879), 165. In Japan Princes are said to have engaged in lacquer-work.
1659. Torriano, Silphione, *laker-wort, some say it is an hearb yielding the gum Beniamin.
