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Dear Sirs;
I would like to submit you a photo of a very strange piece of bronze found in South East Asia. Do you have any idea to what it is related?
Your comments are welcome anytime.
With my best regards,
C. de Sainteville
PS: I also found a very interesting Sangkhachai in sandstone with traces of lacquer. The piece has been pierced in several places all over its body. Do you have any idea why? Was it meant to be decorated with removable artefacts or jewelry?

Dear Claude,

These are 2 beautiful statues.

When you say South East Asia, do you mean Vietnam?
The first statue's chests reminds me of the Dong Song style.

I have no idea about the second statue, but it is realy nice, and old!

Have a nice day,
Pierre.

Dear Claude

The stone statue is Pra Sangkachai (in Thai) or Hotai (Chinese, Japanese Laughing Buddha).

The style of stone carving is possibly folk art from North East of Thailand which is closed to Loa's and Cambodia. The lips are thick, indicates Cambodian influance.

The materail is possibly sand stone painted with Chart, a kind of red paint made from bugjuice ( a kind of insects that ants feed them, and ants will drinks juice from their butt). The bugjuice will be crushed and mixed with glue.

"If the red paint is prove not to be modern day chemical oil paint as well as acrylic paint, the statue would be dated more than 50 years"

The holes are for spurs to lock metal plates, for example copper, silver, gold, brass..etc which cover all over the statue. The artesan will use rubber hammer and wood chisel to hammer the metal plates to be attached and form the shape of Laughing Buddha.

I first thought they are bullet holes, but they are not.

See picture of the bugjuice.

Have fun
Anita Mui

Dear Pierre;
Thank you for your reply. The bronze statue looks like Dong Son as you mentionned but it comes from Cambodia. It makes it even more interesting.
The Sangkachai is also from Cambodia.
Claude

Hi Pierre,
I just found an old message about ancient Asian art and I would like to know if you are still collecting in this field or if you are still active.
Best wishes,
Claude

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