
Dora Tan
Head of Sale, Specialist
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Sold for US$6,375 inc. premium
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Head of Sale, Specialist

International Director
Maung Kywet Ni was among the elite Burmese silversmiths who produced works for international exhibitions between 1875 and 1910 (see Wilkinson, Indian Silver 1858-1947, 1997, p.36; name alternatively spelled "Maung Chwet Nee"). This small, detailed cup perfectly demonstrates why. The master silversmith portrays the war that opens the Mahajanaka Jataka with a barreling pile-up of infantry, canines, cavalry, and war elephants. Through his attention to detail and the advanced techniques at his disposal, he soldered tiny separately-cast silver elephant tusks, adding realism and depth to the scene.
Shaw notes that in the Mahajanaka Jataka, where the bodhisattva perfects the virtue of vigor (virya), dichotomies of noise and silence pervade. It is tempting to read an aural sensitivity in Maung Kywet Ni's compositional dichotomy between the cacophonous battle on one half of the cup, and the airy palace housing only the recumbent bodhisattva (who subsequently ruled for 7,000 years of peace) on the other (cf. Shaw, The Jatakas, 2006, p.226).
Published:
Owens, Burmese Silver Art, p.117, no.S117, fig.3.149.