Large, Rare, Burmese Mirror-inlaid Offering Vessel Shaped as a Sacred Bird (Karaweik)

This rare, large offering vessel in the shape of a bird was used by wealthy Burmese to carry offerings to a monastery – the offerings typically were for the monks, and so comprised food, betel, and the like. Also, such vessels were used to present offerings to the principal Buddha image in a shrine. They were laid out, usually in pairs, before the main Buddha image.

It comprises a carved wooden substrate, that has been lacquered, gilded, and then inset with mirrored glass. The manner of the mirror inlay is likely to be earlier than many related examples. Partly, the vessel is decorated with raised and moulded lacquer designs known as thayo.

The interior is lacquered red.

The bird that the vessel is based on is more probably a karaweik or a hintha (sacred swan). The beak is more like that of a swan than a duck or goose.

The decoration on the vessel is similar to that on a pair of doors and frame said to have come from the Royal Palace in Mandalay and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum and illustrated in Lowry (1974).

A related example in the Green Centre for Non-Western Art at the Royal Pavillion, UK, is illustrated in Isaacs & Blurton (2000, p. 79). The authors says of this example that the only other known comparable example is in the Andreino Collection in Rome.

The example here is in excellent condition.