Kreung thong

In 1957, pillagers uncovered the country’s richest treasure trove: a hoard of gold objects interred in the crypt below the 15th-century tower of Wat Ratchaburana in Ayutthaya. Although much had been lost, archaeologists from Fine Arts Department managed to secure some 2,000 pieces, including a spectacular collection of gold regalia, ornaments and jewellery. Now on display at the Chao Sam Phraya National Museum, the jewellery reveals the high level of gold workmanship, and the wealth associated with aristocratic life of the period. The gold button above is one of these pieces.

The three necklaces showed here incorporate Ayutthayan gold work in modern assemblies, and all employ distinctively Thai design motifs. The leafs-shaped pendant, worked in a mixture of repoussée and chansing,(on left, below) is filled with wax to maintain its shape and detail, and is set with a single ruby. As remains customary, rubies (mined on the mainland principally in Burma, eastern Thailand and western Cambodia) were treated as cabochons, largely because of a regional preference for keeping as much of the weight of a gemstone as possible. The necklace on top left containing alternate gold and glass beads carries a solid engraved pendant representing a bai sema, the leaf-like standing boundary stone that is place around the ordination hall in a monastery to mark the sacred space. The opaque blue-green beads are of Ban Chiang glass. The third pendant on right, set with roughly faceted diamonds, is notable for its enamellings: This technique normally using the three colors red, green and blue, as here, was developed in Ayutthaya.

The manufacture of gold jewellery, however, did not begin in Ayutthaya. The Khmers, who controlled large parts of country until the 13th century, certainly used gold, and pieces have been found at Sukhothai. The engraved slabs at Wat Si Chum in Sukohthai, illustrating the Jataka tales (which relate the previous lives of the historical Buddha), show figures wearing elaborate adornments, including necklaces and crowns. The 1292 insription attributed to King Ramkamhaeng specifically allows free trade in silver and gold, although the wearing of gold was restriced by sumptuary laws to the nobility, and free use of gold ornamentation was allowed only from the mid-19th century, under King Rama V.

Ayutthayan work was the high point in the history of gold jewellery. Nicholas Gervais, a French Jesuit missionary writing in the late 17th century was of the opinion that “Siamese goldsmiths are scarcely less skilled than ours. They make thousands of little gold and silver ornaments, which are the most elegant objects in the world. Nobody can damascene more delicately than they nor do filigree work better. They use very little solder, for they are so skilled at binding together and setting the pieces of metal that it is difficult to see the joints.”

Goldwork was revived under King Rama I in Bangkok after the defeat at Ayutthaya, and the enthusiasm of wealthy Thais for gold ornament was frequently noted by foreign visitors. Yet this very enthusiasm may ultimately have played a part in the decline of traditional Thai goldsmithing, for during the 19th century, when King Rama V became the first Monarch to travel aborad, a number of foreign jewelers set up branches in Bangkok, including Fabergé. Clients with less refined tastes were catered to by Chinese immigrant goldsmiths. The Norwegian traveler Carl Bock wrote in 1888: “The manufacture of gold and silver jewelry, which is carried on to a large extent in Bangkok, is entirely in the hands of the Chinese.” Today, it is in the town of Petchburi, southwest of Bangkok, that the old tradition of gold work is kept alive by descendants of early master goldsmiths.