A RARE GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF BUDDHA SHAKYAMUNI, KAMPHAENG PHET, SUKHOTHAI PERIOD

A RARE GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF BUDDHA SHAKYAMUNI, KAMPHAENG PHET, SUKHOTHAI PERIOD
This lot is from a single owner collection and is therefore offered without reserve

Thailand, 15th century. Seated in virasana atop an integral pedestal with tripod feet, the right hand in bhumisparsamudra, his left resting in his lap, dressed in an uttarasanga which covers the left shoulder and crosses the chest diagonally, culminating in a fishtail pleat. The face with an introspective expression, with accentuated pouting lips, heavy-lidded eyes beneath arched eyebrows, an aquiline nose, flanked by long earlobes, the hair arranged in small curls over the gently domed ushnisha topped by a flame finial.

Provenance: Freddy Hansen, Copenhagen, Denmark, by 1985. Jorgen Ruben, acquired from the above. In the Jorgen Ruben Collection for 41 years.

Freddy Hansen was a Danish dealer of Asian art and antiquities, particularly Buddhist sculpture. Based in Copenhagen, he was active from the 1950s onward and became one of Denmark's most prominent dealers in Asian art before his retirement in the early 1990s.

Jorgen Ruben is a Danish art dealer and collector who has been active for over four decades and is highly regarded in the fields of Asian art and classical antiquities. Raised in an art-conscious family, Ruben was exposed early to both modern painting and European decorative arts. He began working in the art trade in the mid-1970s, first with Persian rugs and later with antiques, while travels to Iran and a visit to Persepolis sparked his lasting interest in antiquity. After studies in Copenhagen and London, he worked in England with a dealer in early furniture, before travelling widely in Latin America and Asia, deepening his knowledge of regional art and culture. In 1984 Ruben opened a gallery in Copenhagen dealing in Asian antiquities. He was later active in London and, in the early 2000s, operated the Brussels gallery Classic Art. Much of his career, however, has been conducted privately from home, selling by appointment to collectors, galleries, and museums. Ruben has always bought selectively, choosing only works that deeply engaged him, and often keeping them for many years until placing them with a collector he felt truly understood them.

Important Note: For essential information on the

Jorgen Ruben Gallery Ledger and provenance documentation please visit here: www.zacke.at/rubencollection_ledger

Condition: Good condition with expected wear and casting irregularities, few minuscule losses to the back of the head, the base with an old repair to the back foot, minor flaking and losses to gilding, some of the gilt possibly renewed over the centuries. The bronze with a rich, naturally grown, dark patina with areas of malachite and cuprite encrustation.

Weight: 1,498 g
Dimensions: Height 30 cm

Literally meaning 'diamond wall', Kamphaeng Phet was a walled city of pivotal economic and military importance. Founded by the Sukhothai King Li Thai (c. 1346-74) in the mid-14th century, it was ideally situated for river trade with Southern Burma, the Lan Na kingdom, and the Chao Phraya basin of Central Thailand. Numerous temples and monasteries were established there, many producing distinctive Buddha images in bronze and terracotta. Later absorbed into the Ayutthaya Kingdom, Kamphaeng Phet served as a crucial fortress and strategic buffer in stymieing Burmese advances on the Ayutthayan capital during the Burmese-Siamese wars (16th-19th centuries). Today the remains of the city form part of the Kamphaeng Phet Historical Park.

Established in 1238, the Sukhothai Kingdom enjoyed a brief but artistically brilliant period of independence until it was gradually absorbed by the rising Ayutthaya Kingdom, a process completed in 1438. Guided by the reformist influence of Sinhalese Theravada Buddhism, which spread widely across mainland Southeast Asia in the 13th century through monastic networks linking Sri Lanka with the ports of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea, Sukhothai sculptors returned to ancient poetic descriptions of the mahalakshana (“signs of a great man”). Drawing on these textual ideals, they developed a new, highly refined Buddha image that departed from earlier Mon and Khmer sculptural idioms. One of the most distinctive features of this style is the flame-like ushnisha, a motif that reflects this broader religious and cultural exchange with Sri Lanka.

Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related bronze figure of Buddha, lacking the gilding of the present lot, 30.2 cm high, dated “ca. 21st century BE [Buddhist Era]” corresponding to 1458-1557 AD, in the Kamphaeng Phet National Museum. Compare a related Ayutthaya bronze figure of Buddha with traces of gilding, 34.2 cm high, dated 14th-15th century, in the Walters Art Museum, accession number 54.2802.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Bonhams Hong Kong, 4 May 2026, lot 1043
Mid-Estimate: HKD 250,000 or approx.

EUR 28,000 converted at the time of writing
Description: A copper alloy figure of Buddha, Thailand, Kamphaeng Phet, 15th century
Expert remark: Compare the related modeling and manner of casting with similar facial features, albeit of larger size (44 cm) and lacking the rich gilding of the present lot.

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