I’ve just come back from Bangkok to search for some books pertaining to my research. Of course, I made the obligatory pilgrimage to the Chatuchak weekend market where I spotted this interesting store, selling what looks like antiquities:
Pardon the shaky images – these were taken with my camera phone as the owners didn’t look to kindly on me taking photos, so I had to sneak a few quick snaps.
On first glance it was evident that it wasn’t the run-of-the-mill souvenir shops selling mass produced statues. The pieces all looked very old, and more tellingly, each of them was unique. There were a couple of foreign buyers in the store looking at a bronze axe/chisel that was usually stored in a locked display cabinet in the middle of the room.
The disc on the top shelf caught my attention – it looked like the engraved part of a Dong Son-style drum, although you can’t really see the design on this picture, save for the eight-pointed star in the middle.
I didn’t see any Ban Chiang ware, or Cambodian beads though. Makes you wonder where these artefacts came from – perhaps now, we’ll never know.
