A UNIQUE SILVER CROWN WITH GOLD ORNAMENTS, ANCIENT KINGDOMS OF CHAM

Published & Exhibited: The Zelnik Istvan Southeast Asian Gold Museum, Budapest, 2013, p. 153.

Scientific Analysis Report: The present lot was examined and tested by Dr. Peter Northover of BegbrokeNano Oxford Materials Characterization Service, senior research fellow at the Department of Materials, University of Oxford. Dr. Northover finds that the state of corrosion and degradation of the silver frame confirms both antiquity and authenticity. The impurities of the silver are also consistent with ancient Vietnamese silver, and the gold repoussé plaques have surface features consistent with age. Furthermore, an electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) with wavelength dispersive spectrometry of a sample from the frame and from one gold plaque was performed, see below for the alloy composition details.

Vietnam, 8^th-9^th century. The four-tiered silver alloy frame supported on a circular base and mounted with three rows of gold repoussé petal-form plaques, totaling eighteen pieces, each finely embossed and chased with a foliate design, surmounted by a gold bud-form terminal neatly inlaid with a gemstone.

Provenance: The collection of The Zelnik István Southeast Asian Gold Museum. An important private collection, acquired from the above. Dr. István Zelnik, President of the Hungarian South and Southeast Asian Research Institute, is a former high-ranking Hungarian diplomat who spent several decades in Southeast Asia, building the largest known private collection of Asian art in Europe.
Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age. Extensive wear, signs of weathering and erosion, encrustations, corrosion, malachite encrustations, losses, dents, nicks, scratches, few minor old repairs. One petal and one piece of the frame detached.
Alloy composition analysis: The crown frame is made from an alloy comprising 90.28% silver. One tested crown petal is made from an alloy of 55.6% gold and 40.94% silver. The crown and stand were both tested by Dr. Peter Northover from BegbrokeNano, Oxford Materials Charaterization Service. A copy of a signed test report, No. R4650/55/58, dated 12 November 2013, accompanies the lot.
Hungarian Export License: Mutargykisero igazolas, reference number MHO/53/11(2017), dated 26 June 2017, has been granted. A copy accompanies this lot.

Weight: 298 g (total)
Dimensions: Height 19.8 cm, the plaques ca. 4 cm (each)

As part of the royal cult in Cham, the statues in royal sanctuaries were richly ornamented with jewelry. Petal-shaped and foliate gold plaques were fastened in multi-layered circles to crowns that coated the deity’s head with a golden glow. The present crown is the only known example ever to appear on the market that has retained its original frame.

Peter Northover is a metallurgist and senior research fellow at the Department of Materials, University of Oxford, and the Oxford Materials Characterization Service. He specializes in the characterization of metalwork from archaeological, cultural, and industrial heritage with extensive experience of over 30 years in the authentication of metal antiquities and antiques, and has authored several publications on ancient alloys.

Literature comparison:
Compare the details of a crown of an enthroned planetary deity, carved from sandstone, dated to the third quarter of the 9^th century, central Vietnam, exhibited by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia, 5th to 8th Century, 14 April-27 July 2014, cat. no. 156.