Thai Bencharong porcelain bowl, early to mid 20th
6" diameter x 3.25"H

This porcelain bowl form having a raised narrow foot rim and slightly everted mouth rim is richly decorated in bright polychrome enamels in the style favored by the nobility in eighteenth century Siam. This colorful style became known as bencharong, a term that derives from two Sanskrit words - panch (five) and rong (colour) and which relates to the number of colors used to decorate such porcelain. This bowl is decorated with typical Thai motifs. The sides are decorated with four Thepanom (Buddhist celestial beings) each wearing a broad necklace of petals and seated on a lotus within triangular cartouches that have a coral-red ground. Four Norasingh (mythical forest-dwelling semi-deity with a human head, torso, and arms but with the hind-quarters of a lion and the tail and hoofs of a deer) against black back grounds filled with flaming pink kranok motifs. This design is framed by two floral bands top and bottom and another double band on the interior mouth rim. The interior glazed in a spotty turquoise green and a floral pattern roundel on center.

Good condition overall