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This Buddha is Burmese, in Ava style and made of alabaster. But how old is it ? Maybe the degree of 'patination' or decay can give you a clue ?

The Ava kingdom was a vassal to the Shan, which ethnic Tai people produced Buddha images bearing similarities in common with yours on points like the 'usnisha' (symbolic flame atop the head), long-lobed ears and serene facial expression. See photo below of an antique Shan image in dry lacquer from an old forum posting.

I saw many such images during three years in Burma during the 1980's. They are mostly kept in temple buildings and settings that are open to the elements to one degree or another, permitting the stone to accumulate environmental patination and weathering with age. On yours, the gilt has been laid down on top of an irregularly applied layer of what looks to be natural lacquer of the same reddish color I saw used in Burma. It is painted on as a fluid and allowed to dry for several days to a tacky consistency, to which surface the sheets of gold leaf adhere quite well. After gilding, the images are washed in water to remove small flakes of the gold leaf. After the lacquer is completely set, the image can be buffed gently with a cloth to produce a lustrous sheen.

Since alabaster is a soft and somewhat porous stone, my impression from the photos of your image is that the white patches showing on the knees, border of the robe at the chest and on the front of the scalp should have absorbed some red staining if the Buddha has any age to it. Buddha images in actual use are tended carefully by devotees, including ritual washings and applications of new gilt as merit-making acts. The spots that are white also aren't in places that would normally receive much wear from handling in a temple or on a home altar either. My impression is that your Buddha may be a fairly contemporary product, with the patchy gilt on the robe intentionally meant to simulate age. (Leaving the limbs and face ungilded also is an intentional with such images, new and old.)

Shan stone carvers in Mandalay are quite adept at reproducing modern alabaster images in the traditional style, and Thai carvers do a respectable job of emulating their Shan cousins in copying these images too.

Do you know any provenance of this item to indicate early origins?

Best regards,

Bill H.



URL Title :ShanDryLacquer

Many thanks for your answer ! I bought the Buddha at an auction in 2007. It was catalouged as being from around 1800. It's a respectable auction company and I wouldn´t expect them to try to fool the customers and risk loosing their good reputation. But maybe they were wrong after all ? I didn't write all that in my question, because I didn´t want to influence the answers I hoped to get.

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