Pair of Silver-Clad Thai Dance Crowns for Rama & Sita, with Original Travel Case

This matched pair of remarkable dancers’ crowns is from Bangkok. One is for a dancer playing Sita and the other for a dancer playing Rama – the two leads roles in the Ramayana. They date to the 1950s and almost certainly were retailed by Narasin, a well-known retailer of classical dancer costumes, located near Bangkok’s National Theatre. Unusually, the crowns are completely covered in high-grade, hammered silver sheet, and then decorated with the more usual copious paste diamentes, all held together with silver wire. More typically, dance crowns were made of wood, bamboo and leather and were then painted gold or silver. The use of actual silver – and a lot of it – suggests that this pair were particularly costly.It is also rare to have a matched pair of crowns.

Masked dance dramas (khon) such as Thai versions of the Ramayana epic (known in Thailand as the Ramakien) featuring Hanuman, king or the monkeys, Rama, and Sita, were very popular in the Kingdom of Siam in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Headdresses such as these particularly fine examples, as mentioned, were made for the dancers who played the key roles of Rama and Sita. As the hero and heroine of the epic, both were attired regally with ornate costumes and spectacular crown-like headdresses. Lower ranking females such as princesses wore diadems rather than full crowns with tiered spires.

Each headdress comprises a leather, wood and bamboo substructure over which the sheet silver was applied. many of the glass diamentes are mounted in a jour silver settings, often in flower-like settings en tremble on wire stems, so that the diamentes shimmied as they shook with any minor movement made by the dancer.

The two crowns are stored in their original, custom-made traveling box of green-painted, iron sheet, with an oblong base and two hinged domes to cover each crown.

Before the dancers performed, it was traditional for them to place their headdresses, diadems, masks and musical instruments on an altar along with offerings to respected teachers and spirits. Sometimes, sanctified oil would be applied to the crowns’ spires.  After the ceremony, the headdresses were put on, and a small, single fresh flower was tucked behind the dancer’s ear (McGill, 2009, p. 108).

A related, silver-clad example, from Narasin, in the Doris Duke collection is illustrated in McGill (2009, p. 108). This example, however is for one of the classical dancers in the epic rather than the lead dancers of Rama and Sita because is comprises a diadem only and lacks the tiers and spire on top.

The examples here are in fine condition. Inevitably, some diamente stones have been lost and some elements are missing or incomplete, but overall, the crowns are intact and they are spectacular. The addition of the original travelling case is a major benefit. One closing latch for the case is no longer present (of the four). The case retains old aircraft labels for when the set was brought to the UK. They indicate that they were brought by a Mr David Neil, of Ayr in Scotland, aboard a BOAC aircraft, and airline which operated between 1939 and 1974, and that they accompanied Mr Neil as hand luggage!

 

Khon dancers in Bangkok, circa 1900. The dancer at the rear centre (Sita) wears a headdress similar to the example here.