An exquisite vintage gilt bronze figure of a kneeling Thai 'Teppanom' Buddha. In Thai mythology this is an angel Buddha, celebrating the Buddha's enlightenment in a pose of greeting.

Intricately decorated, this exquisite small statue has been cast in bronze and hand-decorated in gold leaf. It is extremely stylised and refined, hinting at its origins as a figure for everyday traditional decorative home use. That is, it is not an antique temple figure from an earlier period but one that would have been produced for everyday use, sometime between 1940 and possibly up to 1960, though we are convinced it is from the first half of the 20th Century, due to the highly detailed work shown in the clothing and facial features.

Kneeling Thai Buddha statues of this particular style can often be found decorating the plinths of table lamps from the 1940s. As stand-alone figures, they can also be found in pairs, male and female. This is a single female figure. These figures were intricately hand molded from wax, cast in bronze, hand sculpted and finished with gold leaf.

In the images for this listing, you can see a table lamp of the same period, made in Italy in the 1940s, with gilding and stylised generic Asiatic designs. The two items share that period of decor during the 1940s, in which Asiatic decorative themes were popular. Both in style and date, they would be categorised as belonging to the Hollywood Regency period.

DIMENSIONS

Height 24 cm

Width 7.5 cm

Depth 8 cm

CONDITION

Very good condition. Some gilding faded on one knee.