Daily AncestorJapanner
A japanner applied japanning, a hard, glossy black varnish imitating Asian lacquer, to tinware, furniture, carriages and other goods.
Japanning was a European and American imitation of lacquer from East Asia. Coats of varnish were baked on to give metal and wood a durable, shiny finish, often black and sometimes painted with decoration.
Tin shops, carriage works and furniture makers employed japanners. Oddly, japanner was also an old slang word for a bootblack, because both made things shiny and black.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1880 census
Wm. Pratt, 30, Japanner, Tin works
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Daily Ancestor. "Japanner." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/japanner. Last checked 2026-10-01.