Page 8 - South East Asian Art, December 4th 2020 Galerie Zacke Galerie Zacke

Dear Collectors of Asian Art!

We are proud to present you with our second sale of
Southeast Asian art.

While our Ancient Gold from Southeast Asia sale last year
focused on gold objects, this time we have expanded the
offer to silver and gemstone objects, including a fascinating
collection of ancient gemstone talismans from the Samon
Valley culture and Pyu city-states.

These talismans of exceptional quality are all at least 1,000
years old, some of them possibly even from before the first
millennium AD. Every piece was personally examined by the
Burmese American archaeologist and gemologist Terence
Tan and the Hungarian gemologist Dr. József Takács, and their
respective analysis is included in every lot description.

Temple ruins at Sri Ksetra, the largest Pyu site discovered thus far Dr. István Zelnik and Dr. József Takács examining ancient gemstone talismans

As the title of this catalog indicates, most of the items in this
sale come from long-lost ancient kingdoms in Southeast Asia,
such as Champa in present-day central and southern Vietnam
(192-1832), the Khmer of Angkor in what is now Cambodia
(9th-15th century), and the Pyu city-states in modern Upper
Burma (2nd century BC to 1050 AD). These are some of the
better-known of the lost kingdoms represented in this sale, a
fascinating yet understudied subject which we hope to bring a
little closer to you with this catalog.

There are many similarities to be found between objects
hailing from these different regions, made by craftsmen who
never met or had any opportunity to exchange ideas, but
shared a mix of
influences from the
great empires of India
and China. When looking
through our catalog, the
deep cultural connection
between these often-
Drawing of Angkor Wat warring states becomes My Son, a Hindu temple complex in modern-day Central Vietnam
by Louis Delaporte, c. 1880 quite clear! built by Cham kings