The tiny url doesn't offer a good enlargement of the close up. First of all you state that you have an "an actual antique Japanese lacquer cabinet", what does the term "Antique" mean to you. In the US the only legal use of the term "Antique", is for customs on items that are over 100 years old. Are you saying your actual antique can be certified to have been made in japan before 1914? The term lacquer is often used for any kind of shiny finish. True Chinese (or Japanese) lacquer is made from sumac sap, and because of it's poisonous content, the liquid lacquer is illegal in the US. Because of the high cost of true lacquer, much of the furniture made in the 20th century may have a single layer of lacquer applied over a composite base. (that would be the blue undercoat). But it is much more common for the 'lacquer' to be black paint and regular varnish applied over a composite base: what was once called "Japanning." Because this piece might have some sumac constituents, I would advise extreme caution if you file or sand it, or if you lose more chips, like you would with removal of asbestos. For that reason, a complete sanding and refinishing is not advised, also true lacquer, after being sanded, may not take well to modern chemical varnishes applied on top. If this piece were mine, I would first infill the crack with spackle, using a scrubbing sponge after it had dried to remove the excess from the edges, and to slightly reduce the height of the divot. The idea behind the spackle is that it would be easily reversible with water. On top of the spackle you may want a base coat of something, watered down acrylic craft paint would do well to seal the porous nature of the spackle, but so would a thin coat of Elmer's glue. Then, like you suggested, a black finger nail polish, with maybe a clear coat polish after it dried. Like you said, this wouldn't 'blend in' completely, but would not be so jarring as the blue or white chips. A museum might be able to get a variance on importing real lacquer from sumac for repairing their treasures, and I do know of one person who smuggled in a small can of lacquer, but you can't expect a restorer in the US to use real lacquer for a repair. I would guess a professional repair would be similar to what I suggested, with adjustments for the materials, perhaps only using water base materials that could easily be removed at a later time if you wanted it. What one puts into this kind of repair should reflect the value of the piece. I could imagine someone just taking a sharpie to it and saying "done". If I understand what you mean by "feathering" it is the little blue lines? That is a result of the lower strata of japanning (black) shrinking more then the over varnish, it cracks and shows the blue composite below. I doubt this was how the piece looked when it was brand new. Considering that the finish on this cabinet is showing this kind of deterioration, we might expect more of the same, and like I mentioned, I would be careful to look for and remove dust and chips from the piece on a weekly basis, just in case, before children or pets get to it, or before I breath it in. This post was edited by Lilylore on Mon, Nov 24, 14 at 23:40

I just wanted to pop in this forum to say thank you. The obvious sometimes is staring you in the face and you don't see it! Now another question .. how could I tell if the cabinets were painted with special "cabinet" paint, or does the type of paint not matter, only the color for tiny chips. Thanks!

Why not take a door to the paint store and have them color match it? They can advise you on the finish that is currently on your cabs as well. Without knowing how your cabinets were originally painted (brush, spray), applying with a brush and "feathering" the edges will most likely give you OK results. Good luck!

good luck, you will never get another paint to match, in fact after 5 years the original cabinet coat most likely would not match well