Page 56 - Bonhams March 22 2022 Indian and Himalayan Art NYC

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A COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF BUDDHA elements of the Sukhothai and Lan Na schools—two highpoints of
THAILAND, NORTHERN SUKHOTHAI STYLE, 15TH/16TH CENTURY Thai sculpture. The distinctive design of the pedestal, with a hexagonal
18 1/2 in. (47 cm) high base supporting a lotus throne of broad petals and a beaded upper
rim, is characteristic of the Lan Na style (c.f. Treasures from the
$20,000 - 30,000 National Museum, Bangkok, 2010, p.33, no.50). However, whereas
classical Lan Na images depict the robe’s hem draped high above the
left pectoral, here a Sukhothai convention of terminating by the navel
泰國 北素可泰風格 十五/十六世紀 佛陀銅像 is followed. Also emblematic of the Sukhothai style are its slimmer
features, often seen in sculptures created after the mid-15th century,
This bronze Buddha in the Northern Sukhothai style (sometimes after Sukhothai was annexed by the Ayutthaya kingdom. Compare a
called Chiang Seng style) survives with a rarely seen smooth and smaller but closely related Northern Sukhothai-style bronze Buddha
honey-colored patina as a result of its continuous worship. According published in Pal, The Sensuous Immortals, 1977, no.135(B). Also see
to the former Director of the Bangkok National Museum, Luang Treasures from the National Museum, p.32, no.48.
Boriban—who presided over the sculpture’s formal gift exchange—
some gold was added to the original alloy to provide a glow and Provenance:
inhibit tarnish. The sculpture has a storied provenance accompanied Dr. Kenneth P. and Margaret Landon, since 1946
by a typewritten letter and a commemorative plaque created in 1946. Margaret L. Schoenherr, by inheritance on 20 April 1989
The sculpture was given by Luang Chmachamnikate—a Thai official Thence by descent to the present owner
whose family owned the statue for several generations—to Dr. K. P.
Landon, an American emissary to Bangkok who advised the brokering
of the Anglo-Thai Peace Treaty of 1946. Dr. Landon and his wife, the
American author Margaret Landon, had previously been missionaries
in Siam in the 1920-30s, and Mrs. Landon’s 1944 novel (fig.1) inspired
the film and Broadway musical, The King and I. In the Landons’
subsequent U.S. home, this Buddha sculpture had the audience of
many Thai officials, including Queen Ramphaiphani (1904-84).

Translated from the Thai gold lettering, the accompanying plaque
reads:

“Statue of Buddha in the posture of the Conqueror of Maya, the
Destroyer of Goodness. Latter Chiang Saen period of the Buddhist
era 1800-2091 [1257-1548 CE]. Laung Chmachamnikate (Chma
Nongmichit) presented to Dr. K. P. Landon, blessed and radiant 27
January 1946.”

The sculpture is cast in the Northern Sukhothai style, which blends

Fig.1 Portrait of Margaret Landon and the jacket of her first book,
Anna and the King of Siam (1944)

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