Chinese Export Ware for Thai Elites: Bencharong

 

6.30pm Sunday, 6 October 2019
Visitors’ Briefing Room, Level 1
National Library Building
100 Victoria Street
Singapore 188064

 

Bencharong, together with a variant, Lai Nam Thong (literally “gold-washed”), were made in China in the 18th and early 19th centuries exclusively for Siamese royalty. Despite being Chinese export wares, each piece is distinctively Thai in style and aesthetics. In his presentation, Paul Bromberg will explore the history, production, usage and forms of this little-known, yet vibrant and colourful, export ceramic ware, drawing on examples from the Bangkok National Museum, the Ring Collection in Oslo, Norway (the largest repository of bencharong outside Thailand), and his personal collection.

 

About Paul Bromberg

 

Paul Bromberg is the serving editor of the Journal of the Siam Society and a contributing editor of the Arts of Asia magazine. He is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, a lifetime member of both the Siam Society and the Southeast Asian Ceramics Society. He writes and lectures regularly about Thai art and antiques, and has been living in Asia since 1985, being a resident in Bangkok since 1997. He read Modern Chinese Studies at the University of Leeds, and also studied at Fudan University, Shanghai, and Xiamen University, Fujian province, China.

 


This talk is free and open to the public, SEACS members and their guests. No RSVP is required but seating is limited and on a first-come-first-served basis. The program will begin at 6.30pm promptly and end at approximately 7.45pm. Parking is available in the National Library basement carpark and the closest MRT stop is Bras Basah.

 

A Pair of Bencharong Porcelain Covered bowls, 19th Century, The British Museum Collection

 

Paul Bromberg