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Lot 320
A COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF BUDDHA THAILAND, NORTHERN SUKHOTHAI STYLE, 15TH/16TH CENTURY
22 March 2022, 09:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$62,812.50 inc. premium
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Mark Rasmussen
International Director
A COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF BUDDHA
THAILAND, NORTHERN SUKHOTHAI STYLE, 15TH/16TH CENTURY
18 1/2 in. (47 cm) high
18 1/2 in. (47 cm) high
Footnotes
泰國 北素可泰風格 十五/十六世紀 佛陀銅像
This bronze Buddha in the Northern Sukhothai style (sometimes called Chiang Seng style) survives with a rarely seen smooth and honey-colored patina as a result of its continuous worship. According to the former Director of the Bangkok National Museum, Luang Boriban—who presided over the sculpture's formal gift exchange—some gold was added to the original alloy to provide a glow and inhibit tarnish. The sculpture has a storied provenance accompanied by a typewritten letter and a commemorative plaque created in 1946. The sculpture was given by Luang Chmachamnikate—a Thai official whose family owned the statue for several generations—to Dr. K. P. Landon, an American emissary to Bangkok who advised the brokering of the Anglo-Thai Peace Treaty of 1946. Dr. Landon and his wife, the American author Margaret Landon, had previously been missionaries in Siam in the 1920-30s, and Mrs. Landon's 1944 novel (fig.1) inspired the film and Broadway musical, The King and I. In the Landons' subsequent U.S. home, this Buddha sculpture had the audience of many Thai officials, including Queen Ramphaiphani (1904-84).
Translated from the Thai gold lettering, the accompanying plaque reads:
"Statue of Buddha in the posture of the Conqueror of Maya, the Destroyer of Goodness. Latter Chiang Saen period of the Buddhist era 1800-2091 [1257-1548 CE]. Laung Chmachamnikate (Chma Nongmichit) presented to Dr. K. P. Landon, blessed and radiant 27 January 1946."
The sculpture is cast in the Northern Sukhothai style, which blends elements of the Sukhothai and Lan Na schools—two highpoints of Thai sculpture. The distinctive design of the pedestal, with a hexagonal base supporting a lotus throne of broad petals and a beaded upper rim, is characteristic of the Lan Na style (c.f. Treasures from the National Museum, Bangkok, 2010, p.33, no.50). However, whereas classical Lan Na images depict the robe's hem draped high above the left pectoral, here a Sukhothai convention of terminating by the navel is followed. Also emblematic of the Sukhothai style are its slimmer features, often seen in sculptures created after the mid-15th century, after Sukhothai was annexed by the Ayutthaya kingdom. Compare a smaller but closely related Northern Sukhothai-style bronze Buddha published in Pal, The Sensuous Immortals, 1977, no.135(B). Also see Treasures from the National Museum, p.32, no.48.
(Please refer to our printed or digital catalog for the figure listed in this essay.)
Provenance:
Dr. Kenneth P. and Margaret Landon, since 1946
Margaret L. Schoenherr, by inheritance on 20 April 1989
Thence by descent to the present owner