Dora Tan
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PROPERTY FROM THE NOBLE SILVER COLLECTION
Lot 327
A SILVER STORAGE BOX WITH SCENES FROM THE SAMA JATAKA AND THE RAMAYANA LOWER BURMA (MYANMAR), 1925
22 March 2022, 09:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$12,750 inc. premium
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Mark Rasmussen
International Director
A SILVER STORAGE BOX WITH SCENES FROM THE SAMA JATAKA AND THE RAMAYANA
LOWER BURMA (MYANMAR), 1925
7 1/8 in. (18 cm) high; 5 3/4 in. (14.5 cm) diameter
21.9 troy oz (681 grams) approximate weight
7 1/8 in. (18 cm) high; 5 3/4 in. (14.5 cm) diameter
21.9 troy oz (681 grams) approximate weight
Footnotes
This impeccable lidded container won first prize at the Rangoon Arts and Crafts Exhibition in 1925. However, contrary to what we would expect from European silversmiths, the artist did mark the piece to identify himself. Neither is he mentioned in an accompanying letter written by the Bishop of Rangoon (Yangon), gifting the piece to a supporter of his diocese (fig.1). While some works from the Burmese Silver Age do identify their creators, particularly when they were created for international competitions sponsored by the British colonial government, the overwhelming majority do not. This anonymity is believed to reflect religious and cultural values. The most common of these being Buddhist strictures on vanity, pride, and the attachment to material objects.
In a rather unique instance, the elite silversmith appears to bridge the two most prevalent sources of moral instruction for Burmese laity during the Silver Age: the predominantly Hindu Ramayana and the Buddhist Jataka Tales. In the central band around the container's cylindrical body, he depicts the events leading in the Dandaka forest leading to Sita's abduction. Each vignette is flanked by a pair of celestial adorants holding conch shells, which a symbolic of the Hindu god Vishnu who manifests as Rama in the epic. These scenes have a miniature scale, yet the figural modelling and arboreal backdrops are accomplished with crisp definition. Meanwhile, the lid displays vignettes from the Sama Jataka, wherein the bodhisattva who is later reborn as Siddhartha Gautama perfects the virtue of Loving-kindness (maitri). The scenes include the young boy Sama accompanied by deer, who are able to recognize that he is the bodhisattva, and Sama gathering water for his irreparably blinded and poisoned parents.
On the one hand, the silversmith's juxtaposition of these two stories is probably indicative of the expatriate audience it was created for, being submitted to an art competition. Whereas, most Burmese silver that seems more clearly made for native patrons would depict one story or the other, his blending of the two religious story woven into the fabric of Burmese culture and society would have appealed as of a deft souvenir to the informed expatriate. On the other hand, it is also perhaps no accident that the Sama Jataka was selected among several popular jatakas represented in Burmese silver to appear alongside the Ramayana, as both stories have a strong moral focus on filial piety—Rama accepts his father's banishment, and Sama is resurrected from the dead in admiration for his love and care of his disabled parents. Filial piety being a pillar of Burmese culture, the conflation of the two stories would have almost certainly resonated with members of native Burmese and emigrant Indian members of the nouveau riche that would have almost been among the exhibition's attendees. In doing so, the anonymous silversmith perhaps created applied his skills to an artwork that would appeal to his broad audience.
(Please refer to our printed or digital catalog for the figure listed in this essay.)
Published:
Owens, Burmese Silver Art, pp.56-7, no.S132, fig.3.25.