Early varnishes were developed by mixing resin--pine sap, for example--with a solvent and applying them with a brush to get the golden and hardened effect one sees in today's varnishes. The ancient Egyptians were well acquainted with the art of varnishing, but its origin appears to be far east of there in India,China and Japan, where the practice of lacquer work, a species of varnish application, was known at a very early date. It has been claimed that Japan was acquainted with the art of lacquering by 500 or 600 B.C., but the majority of authorities place its first usage there to the 3rd century AD, as an art acquired from their neighbors, the Koreans. The Chinese and Indian peoples probably knew the art much earlier than the Japanese. Varnish and lacquer work are, however, generally treated in the arts as separate and distinct.
