Page 64 - Bonhams March 22 2022 Indian and Himalayan Art NYC

322
A SILVER OFFERING BOWL WITH SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF THE NUN ARHAT
ELDER, PATACARA
BY MAUNG SHWE YON, LOWER BURMA (MYANMAR), CIRCA 1880
The underside is inscribed with the silversmith’s insignia of a seated deer within a 16-point star
and the silversmith’s initials ‘M.S.Y.’
6 7/8 in. (17.5 cm) high; 10 1/4 in. (26 cm) diameter;
56 1/2 troy oz (1,754 grams) approximate weight
$20,000 - 30,000

The most acclaimed elite silversmith during the second half of the 19th century was Maung
Shwe Yon (d.1889) of Rangoon (Yangon). According to the only substantive contemporaneous
source in English on the subject of Burmese silver, Maung Shwe Yon exhibited his work at the
Calcutta International Exhibition of 1883-4 and the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 in
South Kensington. Among his acclaimed artworks are a trophy still possessed by the Royal
Engineers Officers Mess in Chatham, U.K. (published in Tilly, The Silverwork of Burma, 1902,
pp.18-9), and an offering bowl now in the collection of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco
(2019.1.a-b).

When presented with this superlative ceremonial offering bowl, it is difficult to imagine a better
hand at smithing. Between the repoussé hammering of rounded figures, the adept manipulation
of depths of plane to create textured landscape elements and ornate frames within each scene,
the creation of floral arabesques behind most figures by stippling the negative ground, and
the refined chasing of raised details, a consummate level of mastery is showcased with every
technique. However, Maung Shwe Yon’s fame may not be wholly attributable to his status as a
peerless artist, but also to the support he received from three apprenticing sons, establishing
what grew to be the single most successful commercial silversmithing enterprise: Maung Shwe
Yon & Sons (later Maung Shwe Yon Bros).

The bowl depicts ten scenes from the harrowing experiences of Patacara before she
became an eminent arhat and one of the Buddha’s foremost disciples. Her story is included
within the Therigatha (“Verses of the Female Elders”), a set of poems recounting the path
to enlightenment of many elder nuns during the lifetime of the Buddha. Maung Shwe Yon’s
figural modelling sensitively captures the grief-stricken Patacara as she suffers through a chain
of tragedies, with the premature deaths of her husband and two young children. Taking to
the wilderness with only her long hair covering her naked body, she eventually finds solace
in the Buddha’s teaching on the inevitability of death, which sets her on the path to her own
enlightenment.

Published:
Owens, Burmese Silver Art, pp.169-73, no.S115, figs.4.97-4.107.

62 | BONHAMS